


Awnings

by stainedglasswind



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Developing Relationship, Eddie Kaspbrak Loves Richie Tozier, Feel-good, First Kiss, First Love, First Meetings, Friends to Lovers, Gay Richie Tozier, Good Parents Maggie & Wentworth Tozier, Happy Ending, Losers Club (IT) Friendship, M/M, Prom, Richie Tozier Flirts, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, Soft Richie Tozier, Teen Romance, Teenage Losers Club (IT), Teenagers, not that much angst, they’re 18
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:41:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25111045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stainedglasswind/pseuds/stainedglasswind
Summary: Their fingers slipped apart. Richie's hand rested on his stomach while Eddie's hand fell to the space between them. Richie looked like he was trying to figure out a puzzle. "You okay?" Eddie asked.Richie looked over at Eddie for a second with a small grin and a wink. "Peachy," he said. But by the way he looked back up at the ceiling, his smile disappearing straight away, Eddie knew he was lying.--OR:Richie and his new neighbor spend each night talking on their awnings. An effortless friendship unfolds between them that forces Richie to come to terms with his struggles of being the son of their small town's most popular religious leader._______Also available on Wattpad.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak & Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 5
Kudos: 57





	1. Awnings

**Author's Note:**

> Just two points of IMPORTANT information regarding context and content:
> 
> 1.) Real "awnings" are cloth-material umbrella-like structures whose only purpose is shade. However in this story, I am calling the rooftop over side-porches "awnings" because saying "the rooftop of the porch" repeatedly would be awful.  
> So whenever the word "awning" is said in this story, it is actually referring to roofs that hang over porches  
> (You can google images of awnings and then images of porch roofs to see the difference if you need to.)
> 
> 2.) Almost every chapter of this story skips a small interval of time. This means that you get to be an active part of the story!  
> Every time there is a jump in time their relationship grows closer, so you get to imagine what happened between those jumps of time that created the relationship they now have.

It was nights like these that Richie liked to be up here. The sky was dimly lit by the crescent moon, a deep navy blue cascading over his neighborhood and the only orange supplied by the street lamp just in front of his house. The streetlight hummed into the otherwise silent night. He looked at it. The bulb was eye-level from where he sat on top of the grey awning that juts out just below his bedroom window.

Richie used to be afraid to sit on this rooftop that supplied shade to the side porch. Back when he was much younger, the idea of crawling out onto his awning like they do in movies and books always tempted him. Then, when he was thirteen, a hole that had been forming in the awning for years had suddenly grown huge overnight after a particularly troublesome storm. His father had him crawl out of his window and scoot on his bum towards the hole to cover it with a tarp and some bricks to hold it in place. It was terrifying. Richie felt as though he'd fall through the roofing and onto the porch with wood and shingles showering down towards him once he landed. He could feel how fragile the awning was under his toosh and hands and feet as he crab walked back in. He knew if he stood straight up he would have fallen through.

But Richie is eighteen now and his family had saved up enough to get all of their roofing redone last year. He wasn't afraid to stand up on his awning these days. After fixing the problem, the awning felt strong beneath his feet and he came out here on nights when he just wanted to think clearly because it was less distracting out here than in his room.

He was thinking now. Right across from his awning was his neighbor's. Richie typically didn't mind the proximity of their awnings - a space of about a foot between them since all the houses in this neighborhood were squeezed until they were practically on top of each other. His old neighbors used to never really use the room that led to their awning (they were an elderly couple that slept in a bedroom on the bottom floor and the top floor bedroom was only used when their relatives came to visit) so Richie never got distracted by the window across from his. His old neighbors finally moved out last week to a retirement home and the new ones were moving in today.

A light flicked on in the two windows of the bedroom Richie was sitting in front of. He could tell because even though curtains blocked his view of the objects within the room, they didn't seal all of the light from escaping. A stripe of golden light ran down Richie's face and chest. He grumbled and scooted closer to the street down below on his left to get the light out of his eyes. He could have gone to the right so he wouldn't be so close to the edge, but then his view of the moon would be blocked by the neighbor's house, and besides, he wasn't too afraid of falling down anymore.

He hoped that the neighbors wouldn't be using that room too much, at least hopefully not at night because then they would see him out here and that would be weird so he wouldn't be able to come out here anymore and the stars were so pretty tonight and he wasn't sure how in Astronomy his teacher said that the different colors could be seen with a naked eye because all of the stars just looked white to him-

"Jesus Christ!"

Richie whipped his head around in alarm. He half-expected the voice to be coming from the window that was closest to him, but it came from the furthest end of his neighbor's awning. A head was poking out of that window. "Geez, you scared me," the figure said.

"Uh.." Richie blinked and then scooted back more towards his house and further from the street. He had jumped so much at the voice that he felt like he could've deep dived off the edge. "Sorry," he said, but it almost came out like a question.

The head peeking out of the window shook from side to side, "Don't be," he said, "I'm probably the one that scared you. I just thought you might've been some like burglar or something."

The figure was backlit, but Richie could make it out enough to recognize him now. The voice was also ringing a bell now that Richie's adrenaline was simmering down. Richie and his family brought over a bundt cake earlier that day to them and it was a puppy-looking boy who had answered the door to accept the offering. This boy was curious. "I don't think anyone's said 'burglar' since 90's television, Dude." Richie said, chuckling at this point. The figure crossed his arms against the base of his window. "Why don't you come to the other window so we can talk like normal people?"

The boy didn't even reply. He just slammed his window shut and Richie was chuckling as he marched from the window that was about 20 feet away to the window that was directly across from him. The boy pushed the curtains back and pulled the window open before leaning out of it and saying, "I don't think normal people talk this way either."

Richie grinned. He could see more of the boy now that the streetlight by the road lit up a side of his face. "Oh yeah. Guess not. Did I forget to mention I'm not normal?" Richie asked.

The boy said in a mocking tone: "I'm not like other guys."

Richie balled up a piece of moss that hung underneath the base of his window pane and threw it towards the boy, but it fell just short of hitting him. They both laughed and it was only then that Richie noticed how loud they were being. He hushed his tone instead, "What was your name again?" he asked.

The boy feigned insult with a small gasp, "You forgot already?" he asked in a tone that matched Richie's hush. Richie put his hands up in defeat prepared to defend himself, but was beat to it, "It's okay, I forgot your name too," the boy chuckled, "My name 's Eddie."

"Eddie! Right, I remembered that... I just forgot that I knew," Richie scratched at the back of his neck, "I'm Richie."

Eddie grinned at that, which in turn, made Richie grin also. "So what are you, the town idiot?"

Richie's grin faltered for only a second, "You have no idea." Richie was tapping his foot against a shingle and his fingers fumbled together. Part of him wanted to see Eddie better, he'd only seen him for about half a minute earlier that day. "You should come sit out here with me," he suggested. Eddie looked down at his own awning. "The people that lived there before you just replaced the roofing last year so it's safe. So did my family, we used the same roofing company. Your roof used to be green but now it's grey like ours," Richie said.

Eddie gave it some thought and then crawled out the window and onto the awning across from Richie's.

"What are you doing out here?" Eddie asked.

Richie shrugged, "I just come out here when the weather's nice. Sky's pretty," he said, "helps me think." He found himself looking out beyond the atmosphere again, but shook out of it and looked to Eddie. "So where're you from?"

"New York. City." Eddie was getting a bit more comfortable on his awning now. He could tell Richie was telling the truth about the roofing getting replaced because the shingles weren't tearing apart to shreds under his touch like they would've at his previous home. He leaned against the siding of his house, but kept the palms of his hands and soles of his feet planted firmly into the area beneath him to have as much surface tension as possible. He wasn't as worried as slipping off as much as he was before, but just in case. Eddie had always been cautious. In fact, this was probably the least cautious he'd been in years. "Moved here with my mom because the city was too expensive and she finally saved up enough to move us out," he said, "My mom thinks I'm looking at schools here and that I'll commute once I graduate high school, but between you and me, that's never going to happen."

Richie nodded for a few reasons. One being that he understood keeping secrets from parents and one being that he studied the _stranger on a train_ phenomenon in school, which was exactly what was very suddenly happening now, although in this case it was more like _stranger on an awning_ phenomenon. "Are you a junior too?" Eddie nodded. "Well I can't say I blame you," Richie said, "As soon as I graduate I'm getting out of here too. Derry sucks."

Eddie made a face, "Thanks for really selling the place to me."

"Actually, it's not _all_ bad. My dad's an RL at-"

"What's an 'RL?'" Eddie asked.

"Oh yeah. Religious Leader. The town is small and there's only one religious building so we all just share it in shifts and my dad -who's Jewish- started a thing that any religion is allowed in his service," Richie explained, "as long as you believe in loving and supporting one another and all that jazz." Richie made a rolling hand gesture, "Anyway, every year they organize a pizza party the same night as Prom-"

"What?" Eddie chuckled, "Why?" Richie was getting excited now, Eddie could see it in his eyes and by the way he swallowed over his words. It all made Eddie grin in a way that caused the top of his nose to crinkle.

"Because -don't you know?!- if you go to prom you get pregnant and must live in shame as the only teen pregnancy in Derry since five years ago! Do you want to live like poor Jessica Bellini for the rest of your lack-of-potential ridden life?!" Richie exclaimed.

Eddie seemed unamused, "Let me guess. You guys started the anti-prom... four years ago?" Richie double tapped his nose and then pointed at Eddie to signal that he won this round of verbal charades. "So does no one around here go to prom then?"

"Oh no, the 'anti-prom,' as you put it," Richie said, putting air quotes around Eddie's expression, "is open to all ages so most people go until they're juniors or seniors and then go to real prom those years."

"So they're essentially getting to go to more dances instead of going to less dances as originally intended?" Eddie asked.

Richie nodded but then shook his head because Eddie wasn't getting it yet, "Yeah. Anyway, that's not the point," Eddie scoffed humorously at the absurdity of Richie's sentence. "The point is-"

Eddie nodded hoping it would move Richie's thoughts along faster, but Richie's thoughts were now going too quickly and he stalled to a stop in the headlights of Eddie's expectant stare. "Well, what is it, Squirrel Brain?"

"Heh. Nice one."

"Richie!"

"Right! Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah! Well anyway, at this 'anti-prom,' it's always so lame and sad and depressing," Richie is laughing so hard now that he's almost pissing himself and Eddie is failing to see what's so funny other than Richie himself, "so my friends and I go each year and the dance floor is usually so empty except for the six of us and it's so bad. We make it SO BAD." This mans is still cackling to himself. "And my dad thinks it's so great but all of the other parents hate us because they _know_ we're kind of making fun of it."

"The RL's son, huh?" Eddie said, "They probably expect more from you then."

Richie's laughter petered out slowly. What Eddie said was true, "Yeah they do," Richie said. He leaned his head back and looked up at the stars above them. "I usually get off easy though. Sometimes I think everyone around here thinks I'm a better person than I actually am... just because they figure _of course I would be - I'm the RL's son_!"

Eddie pursed his lips until Richie moved his gaze back down to him. "Wh- you think you're not good?"

"No, no," Richie stumbles a bit, "I mean, I'd like to think I'm like, a good person and stuff. But sometimes people give me like _too_ much benefit of the doubt, y'know? Like the adults around here think I probably have done absolutely no wrong which is stupid because it isn't even possible for anyone to do _no_ wrong."

"What about Jesus?" Eddie asked.

Richie was told to always respect other people's beliefs but what was Eddie even on about? "Huh- He ain't around anymore, is he? Do I look like Jesus to you-" Richie paused when he saw a smug look on Eddie's face, with a tiny smile on his lips, a shaking head, and arms finally crossed across his chest instead of planted at his sides. "Oh. You're kidding." Eddie nodded. "Weird. I don't get it. Leave the jokes to me next time," Richie said.

Eddie rolled his eyes but chuckled. Richie leaned his head into his own shoulder and Eddie looked taller from that angle. He watched as the boy pulled his phone out of his pocket. For some reason, Richie felt the adrenaline start to pump to his ears again as it had earlier that night, but when Eddie slipped the phone back into his pocket, the feeling subsided.

"It's almost midnight," Eddie said. "I'm gonna go to bed now, but I'm really glad we met. For real this time." He was crawling back into his window. Once he was sitting in the frame of it, he stopped and looked back at Richie, "Oh, and that I didn't make you fall off the roof from spooking ya. That would've sucked." Eddie snorted at himself.

"You're telling me," Richie slapped his knee like an idiot. Absolute dickwad. Eddie was starting to move again, "Oh Eddie?"

"Yeah?"

"My friends and I are all hanging out tomorrow at like one-ish, if you want to come?"

Eddie smiled as brightly as the moon, "Really?"

"Yeah. They'd love you."

"Okay. Yeah. Sounds good."

"Awesome!" Richie cleared his throat, "I'll knock on your door when it's time to go."

"Cool! Thanks, Richie. See you tomorrow!" Eddie crawled in all the way and was closing his window.

"Goodnight!" Richie managed to squeeze in before the window slammed shut. He said it too loudly for his own comfort.

The window was closed, but Eddie bent down until their faces were eye-level and he mouthed "Goodnight" with a small wave before drawing his curtains shut with a huge smile on his face.

Richie could see his silhouette walking until the light in the room flicked off. Richie nodded to himself and averted his eyes to the moon once more.

It was just breezy enough to need a long sleeved shirt on, but Richie knew that as Summer quickly approached, it would be too hot to layer his Hawaiian shirts on top and he'd have to revert to t-shirts, like he did every summer. There was a time when he wore Hawaiian shirts in the summer, where many people think they belong, but about a year ago he started wearing them on top of long sleeves during the other seasons. He wasn't entirely sure of why he did this. What he did know, however, was that wearing a Hawaiian shirt when it was cold out helped him feel a little bit of Summer in his chest.

Summer was swiftly approaching now, and he wouldn't need anymore help than the season itself for him to feel it.

Despite the night breeze, Richie felt summer crawling up his toes and fingers and the back of his neck where he had scratched at while talking to Eddie.


	2. Bed

Richie had been right about his friends liking Eddie. Eddie felt welcomed by them immediately. Truthfully, Eddie was usually welcomed by peers pretty easily. He was quite popular at his old school. He thought it was just because he ran track and everyone that did sports were a pretty big hit and his friendly demeanor didn't hurt, but what he failed to realize was that it mostly had to do with his good looks. Eddie wasn't tall, but he wasn't short either, even if he was the shortest of the losers (minus Bev). He had light brown hair that was extremely shiny, a sharp jaw, yet a soft round shin and small nose to match. His brows were thick, but not overly bushy and were the same light color brown as his hair, which helped to not detract the starkness of his greyish-blue eyes. In the summer he'd get a few freckles across his nose, though as he grew older the amount of freckles were decreasing in number. This summer he would only get about ten on his nose.

Most of the losers were quite tall now, and although Richie could remember the days when he had to look upward to maintain eye contact with them, he now had to do the opposite as the tallest member. As far as he was concerned, Richie may as well be the tallest kid in Derry. He felt that way a lot of the time, as though he stuck out like a sore thumb. With time he was growing to like that more though. Sometimes when they all went out together, Richie would rest his elbow on Beverley's head to use her as an armrest, accentuating his height. She would of course push and curse him away when he did that. These days, she doesn't really have to because he'd started doing it to Eddie instead.

In fact, the losers all noticed something peculiar about Richie after he introduced Eddie to the group. (Well, as any more peculiar as Richie Tozier could be if he hadn't hit the max limit years ago.) The minute Richie introduced everyone to Eddie, he slung his arm around Eddie's shoulders and, as far as they were concerned, never removed it.

Richie was constantly touching Eddie. Not inappropriately or uncomfortably or even romantically. But there was always physical touch between the two and as each weekend went by, the amount would increase.

At the current moment, the losers were in one of Mike's barns with the doors wide open. The animals were all in their stables except for a few small goats play-fighting just outside. All of the losers were sitting at a table in the center of the barn playing cards and drinking soda. Richie was the dealer, but as the round was coming to a close and his head was starting to ache of dehydration because all he drank that day was purely soda, he passed the job along to Stan.

The game was dead by now anyway as everyone was having different conversations with one another. Richie got up and sat on a stack of hay bales against the wall. He lifted his chin to the ceiling and closed his eyes. It was cooler there, not being surrounded by a pile of his friends' body heat. Then, there was some heat emanating in front of him now. He opened his eyes. Eddie stood with his back towards Richie so he could continue talking to the losers. Eddie was in between Richie's knees where they poked out over the corner of the hay bales. He fit perfectly in between the space required for Richie to manspread comfortably as he sat.

Richie wasn't even listening to Eddie's conversation with Bev and Ben, he just reached his hands out and lightly placed each on either side of Eddie's hips. Richie's eyes were blinking shut again, but he kept his grip, moving his thumbs up and down slightly over Eddie's shirt. He could feel some of the hay sink as Eddie placed his hands on the bale on the outsides of his knees. And he heard Eddie turning his head back as much as he could to try to look at him. Richie peaked one eye open and Eddie grinned at that.

"Why don't _you_ ever tell me the crazy stuff that goes on at your school?" Eddie asked. Ben must've told him about the fight that broke out at the library today because Joe M. was mad at Joe S. for unfollowing him on instagram. Eddie wasn't going to start attending Derry High until the fall because he already completed all of his junior credits at his old school, which meant he always had to wait until after the school day ended to see his friends.

"Cause it's all either scary enough to make your mom want to move away or stupid enough to make you think that you wouldn't be getting a decent education and then make _you_ want to move away," Richie said.

"Nah," Stan said, "Richie's just butthurt because he doesn't get to be the one reaping chaos on school grounds anymore."

"Yeah maybe," Mike said, "Hadn't thought about that."

Richie snorted because "That's not true. I'm a changed man."

"Eddie, Richie probably doesn't tell you anything about it because he's too distracted by books to notice what's going on at school anymore," Bill said.

"Yeah, seriously," Ben said, "Last week our teacher started puking during the pledge of allegiance and Richie didn't even notice because he was getting _ahead_ on homework."

"You don't stand for the pledge?" Eddie asked Richie.

"No. Do you realize how cult-y that is? To make a whole bunch of white kids rise every morning with their hands to their hearts and make them all promise their lives to a nation at the same time?" Richie shivered, "Creepy as Hell."

Richie leaned forward until his chest hit Eddie's back and he moved a hand away from his hip so he could rap his arm across Eddie's chest and hold onto his shoulder. This position made it so that Richie's chin had to rest on Eddie's shoulder, which was nice because Richie was tired and needed to rest his eyes again.

They were talking about something else already that Richie ignored so he could just focus on not falling asleep against Eddie until he heard him say, "You guys must be really popular at school." Richie opened his eyes and saw all the barren stares that Eddie was met with.

"Yes and no," Richie said.

Eddie moved a hand to hold onto Richie's arm, "What do you mean?"

"Well, Bill's pretty popular now that he's lost his stutter. Bev's also a big hit these days," Richie's eyes scanned the room, looking at each one of his friends as if that would help him to remember their status on campus. "Mikey, not so much, except for the people that want to like him so they can tell people they have a black friend so they're not _actually_ racist. Ben's getting up there because, hot damn, look at those muscles Big Boy. Stan's doing alright because his dad is an RL like mine, but that scares some people away too 'cause like: don't mess things up with an RL's kid."

Everyone was kind of half-chuckling at Richie's extreme retelling of the truth. "What about you then?" Eddie asked.

"Richie's super popular," Ben said.

"Heaven knows why," Stan muttered.

"Because he got all lanky, started playing guitar, and dated Natalie Page all in the same year," Bill explained.

"The only one that lasted was the lanky thing though," Mike laughed.

"Yeah whatever. We all used to be super unpopular though, back in like middle school. Everyone hated us. But we're on the rise now, Baby!" Richie exclaimed to no one in particular. Everyone raised their cups of soda for a toast, "Don't let the fame get to your heads, asswipes. Once a loser-"

"Always a loser!" they all replied in unison (minus Eddie who instead said, "Isn't everyone saying that at the same time a little cult-y?" to which Mike replied, "It would be if we were _all_ white -according to Richie," making everyone laugh once again).

Richie hummed as he leaned his head against Eddie's. He felt Eddie knock their heads together lightly and chuckle softly.

"Anti-prom is next week. Who's going with who this year?" Bill asked. Stan hummed in thought. Usually the losers would've paired up by now, but they were so distracted by the newcomer to their group for the past month that they'd forgotten to plan it. Not to mention that there was now an odd number of them so it wouldn't be as straightforward this year.

"I call Eddie!" Bev shouted.

"What?" Richie's head shot up immediately at that, "No way, I found him first!"

"Yes, but his first anti-prom should be with a girl so _the high elders_ accept him," she said, mocking Richie's trademark British accent. (A terrible imitation of a terrible accent came so full circle that her accent was almost decent.)

"Or he could go with the son of an RL _so that elders accept him_ ," Richie fought back.

"Well then in that case, I'll take him so there's no more fighting," Stan said.

"No!" Bev and Richie shouted at the same time. Upon seeing the feral look of possession in the other person's eyes, they both started cackling and pointing at the other.

Eddie was thankful Richie removed his arm momentarily because the argument caused Richie to tighten his grip around Eddie's chest and was slightly constricting his flow of oxygen.

"Who says I'm going at all?" Eddie asked. They all chuckled because everyone knew he was kidding. He started going to RL Tozier's services on Friday nights and actually enjoyed his time at the center with all the losers. Of course, the only reason they all always went was for Richie, otherwise, only Stan would show up probably.

"I say so. And you're going with me," Richie said definitively. "And Stan will be our third wheel so that you can do what has never been done before: going with two RL's sons and _the higher elders shall all have aneurysms due to their inability to comprehend such power._ "

Richie suddenly moved his arms and hands in sharp movements to tickle Eddie all over his sides. Eddie shrieked and tried grabbing at his hands all while muttering "Stop. Oh my God, stop it dickhead!"

Suddenly, Eddie was ripped out of Richie's reach by Beverly, who was currently holding him by the wrist until she hugged onto him and glared at Richie. Richie glared right back. "Give him back," Richie said.

"No," Beverly said, "I need him."

Richie wasn't one to argue with Bev's reasoning much, and even if he had wanted to, she was already dragging Eddie out of the barn before she could see Richie pouting behind her.

Beverly led Eddie to the alleyway between the barn and the stables where she was grinning maniacally. Of course she was popular, Eddie thought, she was so spirited and fun, not to mention gorgeous. "Eddie!" she said, like she was excited about something obvious.

It wasn't obvious. "Beverly!" Eddie shouted back.

She rolled her eyes and shoved his shoulder playfully, "Stop being obnoxious," she said, "I was just wondering... I've never seen Richie be like this to anyone before."

"Like what?"

Beverly was suddenly a little less excited and maybe a bit more nervous or protective. Though she hid her emotions well from Eddie, who found her stormy eyes difficult to read most of the time anyway. "I guess I'm not really sure," she trailed off, "I mean... we've all been friends with Richie since middle school, some of the guys since they were in kindergarten. And like, he's never been so... hmm... so comfortable around someone so quickly."

Eddie figured it was all the nights they spent on their awnings across from each other just talking. It happened every night these days, so that obviously would accelerate their friendship beyond the moments they hung out with the losers. No one knew about that though, as far as Eddie was aware anyway. He hadn't told anyone. He wasn't sure why, but the nights on the awnings felt sacred, like it shouldn't be shared with others. There was something else too though, he had to admit, "You know... It usually takes me a while to get comfortable around new people too," he said, "and I feel this way about all of you guys at least a little, but with Richie it's like on this whole other level of like... it just feels like I've known him for a lot longer than I have. Like we've been friends for years or something. And I know that doesn't make sense because I only moved here a month ago, but I feel like I've been friends with you guys for way longer than that."

Beverly nodded and a small smile started forming on her lips, "I know exactly what you mean." After all, she'd experienced the same thing with a different member of the Losers Club.

Eddie grinned as he leaned into the side of the barn with a huff. He looked down to watch their shoes taking turns to tap the other's causing them both to chuckle. "You think he feels like that too?" Eddie asked suddenly.

"For sure," Bev said.

When the two returned to the barn, all of the boys were up and dancing to R&B playing from the pathetic speaker of Bill's phone. They were all dancing horribly, but worst of all was Richie, who upon spinning on his heels, struck a gaudy pose when he saw Bev and Eddie. He pointed his index and middle fingers at the pair to entice them closer. He then took the V he was forming with his fingers and swiped it in front of his eyes Pulp Fiction-style, "Just a little peek of what you'll get at anti-prom," he purred at them.

Beverly ran to Richie's arms immediately and somehow he went from dork to suave as he danced with her; no one could tell from the outside looking in, but both Bev and Richie knew it was because he was following her lead and if it had been the other way around, they'd be a mess instead.

Eddie chuckled as he joined them all. Realistically, it was too hot for all of them to want to move around like this, but dusk was starting to fall upon them and the air was cooling down. After a little bit, Richie's head was _really_ starting to ache, so he called it quits and Eddie followed behind. The pair always rode their bikes home together because they were neighbors and it wouldn't have made sense not to.

By the time they were dropping their bikes to the grass in between their driveways, Richie was grappling his temples in the palms of his hands. "Richie, you should drink some water," Eddie said, "You have Advil at home?"

Richie just groaned, hoping Eddie would know he meant "Yes."

Eddie sighed, "Alright Mr. Popular, let's get you fixed up." Richie didn't remove his hands from his head as Eddie led him inside the Tozier house. Eddie knew where the spare key was and Richie was so happy he'd showed him the week prior. Eddie led Richie to the kitchen and poured him some water before heading to the bathroom. "Where's the Advil?"

"Mirror."

Eddie opened the medicine cabinet and ignored all of the orange bottles and just grabbed the huge bottle of Advil that he would recognize anywhere. He took out two pills for Richie, who swallowed them both in one go.

"Finish that water," Eddie said.

"Augh!" Richie forced himself to do so, but on top of his migraine, his belly was aching because it was so stuffed with soda.

Eddie refilled the glass with water and Richie groaned. "Don't worry," Eddie said, "it's for later."

Eddie tilted his head at the sight of Richie. Despite his head hanging low, Richie was still quite a lot taller, but not enough so for him to see the facial expression he was hiding behind the black waves of his hair. He could tell he was in pain though. "Let's go to your basement," he suggested, "We could watch some tv. I read somewhere that listening to music can actually decrease headaches so tv might have the same effect. Or well, we could also just go to your room and listen to music so we _know_ you're getting the effect in the first place-"

"You have too much brain for your own good, Eds" Richie said.

"Call me that again and I'm leaving you to rot in your kitchen."

"To my room it is."

They were listening to Hozier, who Eddie had heard of but had never listened to before that day (other than that first hit single of his that played all over the radio like five years ago).

There was a Hozier poster on the wall two. It was one of three posters and it sat between David Bowie and, oddly, a comedy show tour poster of Wanda Sykes. The posters were all perfectly in line with each other. Their color schemes matched the abstract painting filled with blacks and blues that hung over his bed which also matched the colors that filled his bedroom.

Richie didn't have too many knick knacks. He had some figures perfectly angled at 45° on the corners of shelves, dressers, and his desk. They were staged like his room was for show and other than the untidy pile of comic books that surrounded his alphabetized books, Richie's room looked like it was on display. Like it was just for show.

He'd gone through a stage years ago where his room overflowed with things, but his parents never let him leave the house until his room was straightened out so he eventually packed up all of his memorabilia into storage bins in his closet and donated all of his beloved toys.

It felt less congested now anyway. He missed his action figures though and how whenever they were laid out on the ground they were already set for Bill and Stan to come over and play with. Or perhaps he missed those days more than the action figures themselves. Things were simpler then - back when his room spelt like socks and sweat.

Now his room smells like Febreese.

The glass of water on Richie's nightstand was almost empty now. He was feeling a lot better, his stomach ache and headache definitely on the way out. What Eddie was doing was helping.

Richie was laying down on his bed like he normally did, but his head was cradled by the position of Eddie's legs in their criss-cross-applesauce pose. Eddie's fingers were gliding through Richie's hair purely to make two braids up at the top to get the hair away from his forehead and out of his face.

"Where'd you learn how to braid?"

"My mom used to make me braid her hair when I was younger."

Richie hummed along knowing not to talk about Eddie's mom for too long. "The girls at your last school must've loved that you could braid," Richie opened an eye to look up at Eddie, "Betcha got all the ladies, huh Spaghetti?"

Eddie flicked the top of Richie's head. "Ow dickface, I still have a headache y'know."

"I did get all of the ladies. And you know how they kept me?" Eddie asked, "By _not_ calling me an italian pasta dish!"

"Well maybe they should've tried it," Richie said. "I mean obviously they were doing something wrong since you don't have a girlfriend. So like, they _didn't_ keep you," Richie pointed out.

Eddie at this point had finished up the second braid of Richie's hair and moved his hands to the bed instead. They stared at each other for a moment. Richie felt something pang in the pit of his stomach. It could've been the soda, but it was probably the awful feeling that he'd struck a nerve in Eddie. They'd talked about breakups on the awning just a few nights ago, but just because they spilled their guts out then didn’t mean that Eddie was ready to joke about it yet.

Richie bit his lip nervously while thinking about what to say next. God, Eddie looked funny from this angle. He was all disproportionate, with his lips and nose being far larger than his eyes that were currently squinting down at him. He even had a slight double chin from this angle. It never occurred to Richie that he'd see Eddie from below looking up. Richie was so used to looking down and seeing hairlines, not up at chins. He started giggling to himself.

"Yeah," Eddie said, "guess you're right." Richie poked at the skin just under Eddie's chin. "Dude, what the fuck?" Eddie giggled. That made Richie snort. Which made Eddie snort.

Eventually they were crying laughing and it was one of those things that whatever just happened was so _un_ funny that it was absolutely hysterical. They both arched forward in their laughter and Richie was so overcome with his hysterics that he shot forward to sit up, thereby slamming their foreheads together.

"Fuck!" he stammered between laughter. He managed to look up at Eddie who was also grabbing onto his forehead now, clearly in pain, but laughing too hard now to make any noise at all. Richie squealed out a painful noise somewhere between a scream and a laugh and he rolled off of his bed to fall to the floor so he could slam his fist to the ground.

After a few minutes and some gasps for air later, the laughter petered out and Eddie stuck his head out over the end of the bed to look down at Richie. Richie's smile gleamed up at his.

"What time is it?" Richie asked.

Eddie looked over his shoulder to the alarm clock on the side table. "It's nine."

"Want to sleep over?" Richie asked.

"Sure, let me just go through the routine."

Eddie rolled backwards on the bed and opened the window that led to the awning. Then he popped off the bed and started putting his shoes back on, "See you in like two minutes," he said before leaving the room.

Other sleepover nights, Richie would've just let Eddie crawl from the Kaspbrak awning and climb onto the Tozier awning and then in through the window onto his bed, but that night Richie decided to meet him out on the awning instead.

He crawled out of his window and sat down just in time to see Eddie climbing outside. "Oh, I thought I'd meet you inside," Eddie whispered.

Richie shrugged, "I realized it wasn't fair to make you crawl from yours to mine all alone, especially since you're such a big baby."

"Hey, shut the fuck up. Being afraid of heights is normal. Do you know what that word means? _Normal_?"

"No, _I'm not like other guys._ "

Eddie was swatting the air because he was too scared to laugh while crawling towards the space between the awnings.

Richie watched in amusement for another moment before he stood up, "Why don't you just stand up and walk?" he asked.

Eddie looked up to see Richie standing, "Are you crazy? You'll lose balance and fall, sit down!" Eddie hated when Richie stood up out here, it scared him shitless.

"I'm like eight feet tall Eds, if I fall, that's only like a two foot difference between me and the ground."

"Shut the fuck up," Eddie didn't even have the mind to debunk everything Richie had just said, "and what about me? I'm like 5'7, I don't want to die."

Richie reached out his hand, "Our combined height makes us invincible."

Eddie just wanted Richie to shut up so much that crawled back up his awning towards his window and in his frustration stood up to be eye level with Richie, all the while clutching onto his window frame for support. He was seething as Richie eyed him up and down as if to say, " _See_." Eddie looked down at himself standing and slapped a hand over his mouth as to not scream into the dark air.

"Here," Richie said. He walked towards the space between their awning and put a foot on Eddie's, leaving one behind on his own, so he was standing in the middle with a foot on each. He motioned a hand at Eddie, who very tentatively left the safety of his window and walked over to Richie, hands out to keep his balance. "It's not even that steep," Richie said.

"Shut up. Just shut up."

Richie chuckled until Eddie got to him. He did really look scared. They grabbed hands. Eddie shuffled to the edge until he matched Richie's stance of one foot on each awning. Eddie was holding both of Richie's hands now very tightly. Their chests were close together and Richie huffed into the night with a grin on his face. Eddie looked up at him and could see the twinkle of stars and mischief in his eyes. He was glad he kept the braids in, he might've not been able to see his eyes in that moment otherwise. "Okay, you go first, you can push off my hands as leverage. I'm in a good position, I won't fall," Richie assured him.

Eddie did just that and then scrambled to Richie's window. He hung in the frame until he saw Richie easily step back onto his awning entirely. "You're stupid."

At this point, they were both now sitting in the window. Richie spared a moment to look up at the moon before looking back at Eddie. He seemed to be searching his eyes for something, but it was just the buzz of spreading his stupidity, "No, _we're_ stupid."

Eddie scoffed and pushed Richie inside before following behind and collapsing on the bed after him.

By the time Eddie landed, Richie was rolling off the bed and towards his dresser. He picked out one of his baggy t-shirts that were enormous on Eddie and tossed it towards him. It was yellow. He hadn't seen yellow on Eddie yet. He picked a grey one for himself. They both stripped down to their boxers and shrugged on the shirts before jumping onto the bed again.

Richie was glad his ceiling fan was already on because it was hot in the room and his flushed cheeks were thankful that his hair was pulled back into braids instead of layering his face in more heat. Once the boys became reaccustomed to the heat of the bedroom, they were both comfortable again. Eddie even pulled the top sheet up to his chest.

Richie turned off his lamp and the two were facing each other in the dark, the only light present streaming in from the window behind Eddie's figure. Richie's Hozier playlist was still playing softly from his phone.

"How are you cold enough to need a sheet right now?" Richie chuckled in a hushed tone. He was hyper aware of his father's footsteps downstairs.

"I'm small," he whispered back, "and small people are always cold."

"Guess you are pretty small."

Eddie stuck his tongue out, which he knew Richie would barely be able to see so he made a "nnn" noise to go along with it as backup.

Richie put his hand out in front of himself and Eddie hesitantly placed their palms together. Richie's fingers were much longer, so much so that he could bend the tops of his fingers on top of Eddie's. Richie carefully moved the position of his hand hoping that Eddie's would follow. When it did, he could finally see the size difference for himself.

Eddie was getting tingles and Richie was getting sweaty. Slowly, almost indecipherable in telling who made the first move, their fingers started to intertwine.

This wasn't the first time they held hands. Once at the quarry when they were sat on the rocky shore, their pinkies wrapped around each other's, each boy rationalizing that their fingers had fallen that way accidentally. Then once when all the losers went to the movies and Eddie was scared so he held onto Richie's hand. Then of course, only moments ago outside on the awnings so Eddie could find his balance. But this was the first time they held hands for no other motive. This was the first time it was so purposeful.

Richie couldn't resist the urge to reach forward and quickly peck Eddie on the forehead. This was also not the first time for that. But it was the first time it wasn't done for show in front of the losers where Eddie would squirm and curse Richie off of him for doing so. There was no squirming that night. They were both chillingly still. Richie sighed and sank back into his pillow, shifting so he was lying on his back and facing the ceiling. Their hands were still together, but the grip was a lot looser now.

"Rich?" Eddie whispered.

"Yeah?"

"What song is this?"

Richie took a second to listen before answering, "Like Real People Do."

Eddie quite liked the song so far. Two lines stood out to him: _In some sad way I already know_ and he had been hyper aware of _Honey just put your sweet lips on my lips. We should just kiss like real people do_.

"I like it," he said.

Richie nodded. "Me too."

Their fingers slipped apart. Richie's hand rested on his stomach while Eddie's hand fell to the space between them. Richie looked like he was trying to figure out a puzzle. "You okay?" Eddie asked.

Richie looked over at Eddie for a second with a small grin and a wink. "Peachy," he said. But by the way he looked back up at the ceiling, his smile disappearing straight away, Eddie knew he was lying. He wondered if lying was a sin for Jewish people, and if it was, whether it would even matter since Richie’s dad was an RL instead of a rabbi.

He remembered earlier that evening when Richie said that kids were scared of being friends with Stan because they wouldn't want to accidentally mess things up with an RL's kid. The other losers said Richie was popular, but he wondered if Richie meant what he said about Stan. Maybe being popular wasn't the same as having a lot of friends. That wasn't something Eddie ever thought about in the city, but Ben once told him that in a small town like Derry, friendships are what gets you through the year, not popularity.

"Is it hard being an RL's kid?" he suddenly asked. Richie never really talked about his father outside of his position at the center. Eddie had stayed for dinner and met the Tozier's a couple of times at this point, but no one ever really talked about topics beyond education and occupation. He had no idea what RL Tozier was actually like, or the Mrs.

"That's a loaded question," Richie said, "I guess it depends on what certain aspects you're looking at. I've told you about some of the perks in the past... What are you thinking about?" He wasn't being defensive, he was sincerely asking.

Eddie hummed for a moment in thought when suddenly he remembered something Bev told him about Richie never being this comfortable with anyone before. Then, "Well like, remember how you told me that you broke up with Natalie after like two months of dating? You said it had something to do with being the son of an RL, but I never really understood what you meant," he admitted. He thought back to the night they were talking about breakups. Eddie was telling Richie how his longest relationship had been six months and Richie told him how he'd only ever had one girlfriend and it lasted a third of that time. Richie said it probably would've lasted longer if he wasn't his father's son, but never went further than that.

Oddly enough, in the entire time they'd known each other, Richie hadn't knowingly withheld any information about himself from Eddie. Obviously Eddie didn't know every minute detail of his life story yet, but if Eddie asked a question, no matter how superficial or how deep, Richie answered. For some reason he just didn't want to keep anything from Eddie. Sometimes he just wished that Eddie already knew everything there was to know about him without having to say it. (And truthfully, Eddie felt the same way.)

This was maybe a bit more embarrassing than anything else Richie has admitted to so far though, and some other emotion he couldn't quite place. Most honest? Genuine? Scary?

Richie let out a puff of air. "I haven't told this to anyone. Everyone thinks we broke up because she was leaving for college, but that wasn't why." Eddie watched Richie carefully. To anyone else, there wasn't much to watch; Richie's eyes were still glued to the ceiling, his hand was still placed on his stomach, and he just blinked every now and then. But Eddie noticed the small twitch of his fingers and furrow of his brows. Eddie wasn't going to rush him, he let him take his time, even if he was boiling with nerves and anticipation for seemingly no reason. Finally, Richie continued:

"See, the problem was that she was a senior and I was a sophomore. So like obviously she was used to being with guys and stuff, but this was my first relationship ever and I had no idea what I was doing. Anyway, after two months of being together, she wanted... she wanted to have sex."

Eddie's eyebrows raised.

"I know. Hottest chick on the planet wants to bang and that's a bad thing? What am I? Crazy?" Richie almost snarled at himself. "I guess so, because she gave me time to think about it and I just couldn't... I don't know, it's a lot of pressure being an RL's kid in a small town like this. Everyone knows everyone's business and word gets around like wildfire. And it's more than just that. Like, with sex specifically. Like I'm told who I'm supposed to want, and what I'm not supposed to do with who I'm supposed to want and the unspoken rules of what I'm _not_ supposed to want and... who I'm not supposed to want." A pause. "It's... really confusing."

Eddie's eyebrows slowly raise one more time. Something in his head clicked and suddenly he couldn't hear the music anymore over the loud buzzing in his ears. Was Richie saying what he thought he was saying? Not necessarily, it could just be an acceptance thing generally, but if it was the specific thing Eddie was thinking it was, it would make a lot of sense.

"Geez," Eddie mustered, "that blows."

"Big time."

The pounding in Eddie's heart was nearly as harsh as the pounding in Richie's.

"No one else knows?-"

"No one."

Eddie nodded and then flopped off of his side and onto his back to face the ceiling as well. "Thank you for telling me," he whispered. He glanced at Richie who looked even more deep in thought now. It was weird to have this conversation in a bed instead of outside on their designated awnings. But it was nice. Because if they had been out there, Eddie would've felt the need to show Richie that nothing would change between them because of this, but it would've been difficult to do that on the rooftops of two separate houses. But in a shared bed Eddie could lean over and, for the first time, be the one kissing Richie's forehead instead of the other way around. And so he did.

The following morning, the pair woke up with a jolt to the huge vibration of Eddie's phone alarm.

They always set it to wake them up while it was still dark outside so no one in the neighborhood would spot Eddie crawling from one awning to another. These days the sunrise was at 5:00 AM, so Eddie and Richie would wake up at 4:30.

Eddie was cold where he laid, even under the thin sheet. Somehow, there was a significant distance between his body and Richie's despite it being a twin bed.

Eddie disabled the alarm and smiled at Richie who smiled sleepily in return. They got off the bed so Eddie could change back into his clothes from yesterday.

Even this early in the morning, he couldn't stop thinking about their conversation last night.

Was Richie... not straight?

And did he like Eddie?

Eddie had a feeling he knew the answer to the first question. He wasn't sure why he was even curious about the second one. He'd had plenty of queer friends in New York and that second question never occurred to Eddie with them.

But the two were just standing there staring at each other in loose tees and boxers and Eddie was making no move to get changed.

"How come I've never noticed how cute you look in my t-shirts before?" Richie asked. His braids were messed up from sleep, his eyes were barely open, and he seemed confident in his body language, even if his voice sounded unsure.

"Because you're used to me looking cute all of the time anyway," Eddie replied.

They both chuckled, Richie's eyes opening a bit more when he rolled them.

Last night, after Eddie had kissed Richie's forehead, he'd come to his senses and decided to not push it any further. Richie was feeling vulnerable and Eddie didn't want to make him think he was going to take advantage of that, or that he was giving him the wrong idea or something.

But in this moment, he really was wondering if Richie liked him.

And he wanted to know if he liked Richie too.

He stepped close to Richie and wrapped his arms around his neck and they were hugging. It was warm and soft and nice. Richie was a little more tense than Eddie was expecting, but at the same time their hugs were usually looser than how tight this one was. Eddie moved his arms from around Richie's neck to hang loosely around his waist and it made all the difference. Richie sank into the embrace and by the small hum of his lips, Eddie could tell his eyes must have been closed.

Somehow, this was easier than asking questions.

Eddie felt Richie's head moving against his hair and then a small pressure that pushed his hair into his scalp. He couldn't tell if it was Richie's chin or a kiss to his head, but it felt nice all the same.

Eddie's hair smelt of strawberry shampoo.

Eddie breathed in against Richie's chest and he didn't know how to describe what Richie smelt like other than, well somehow, Richie smelt like sunshine.

"I don't wanna go," Eddie whined into Richie's shirt.

Richie chuckled and Eddie could feel the reverberations of it in his throat. "We're going to see each other tonight," Richie said.

Eddie grumbled but backed off to change quickly. Once he had, the boys were crawling out of the window and onto the awning. Richie helped Eddie get to his side and watched as Eddie started shimmying into his bedroom.

Then Eddie stopped and just sat in his window to look at Richie. It was still dark outside so it felt like any other night on their awnings. It felt like they should be having some profound conversation right now or just throwing whatever was in the gutters at one another. They were both at their windows so the gutters weren't an option for Eddie who felt like he needed to admit something to Richie after he'd opened up to him so much last night. He also wanted to make sure Richie knew where Eddie stood.

"Can I ask you something?" Eddie asked. Richie nodded. "How selfish is it of me that I was hoping you weren't popular at school?" Richie didn't know what to say so he just quirked his head to the side in confusion. "I guess... I'm just worried that when I start going to school here that you'll want to hang out with other people more than with me."

"Ha! What?" Richie asked a bit too loudly for the quiet atmosphere of the sleeping neighborhood. He slapped a hand over his mouth as if that could've taken the volume of the past away. Then he planted himself firmly against the window frame. "About as selfish as I've been then," Richie answered. "This whole time I was worried that when you started next semester that you'd find new friends. Which I know isn't a bad thing, you should get new friends. But I keep thinking about what would happen if you find cooler people so you just leave-"

"Richie." Eddie shook his head. "You're my best friend now, Richie. I know I'm not yours and that's okay. Because my competition are people that have known you your entire life. Which is fine and I'm not jealous of them because I like them all a lot too and because I understand. But you're mine. So you don't have to worry about all that stuff."

They both stared at each other for a moment. The sun was beginning to rise and birds were starting to wake up the town. Eddie gave Richie a small smile and a single nod before shifting his weight to face his room.

"Eddie," Richie called, making Eddie look over his shoulder and back towards him, "You're my best friend too."

And somehow, he was telling the truth.


	3. Anti-Prom

Richie was stalling. They could all tell. He always stalled them when they were standing outside the religious center. However, he'd never done it for Anti-Prom before. Today was supposed to be the exception when he runs in and the others try to catch up while he beelines for the basement and the others find him already mingling with all the other partygoers.

Right now though, the small steeple of the building was overlooking the group as Richie pretended he couldn't get through the invisible wall he had mimed in front of himself.

"Come on, Richie," Stan groaned, "You know we're supposed to be greeting people."

Bill walked through the wall that was not actually there.

"Woah! How are you guys doing that?" Richie exclaimed.

"Shut up, you're not funny," Eddie said whilst laughing hysterically.

Bev elbowed Eddie for feeding into this, but they'd been standing there for about two minutes of Richie's absolute nonsense and it was so stupid that it was hilarious. To Eddie at least.

"Do you want us to go in without you?" Mike suggested.

"You wouldn't DARE," Richie answered.

"Then come on!" Bev said. She grabbed Richie's wrist and pulled him along.

The basement was a decent size. It had large beige tile flooring and beige walls to match. There was a small table with plastic cups and an assortment of soda and juices in the corner by the trash bins. Small round and rectangular cheap looking tables lined the perimeter of the room. Music was playing quietly. All of the young people were standing against the back wall talking to each other while adults sat at the tables. Surprisingly, most of the kids looked liked about upperclassman age and there were only a few toddlers and a couple of tweens. Most of the faces looked familiar to Eddie who came to the center every Friday with his friends, but he didn't know most people's names because the losers just typically minded their own during services.

When they got inside, Eddie expected that maybe his dates would greet a few people but then start partying immediately. He had no idea that Stan and Richie were expected to greet every adult sitting at the tables in the basement.

They were a big hit too. Eddie was following behind them and waving and smiling. He kept on hearing the adults saying "Such nice young men," and "respectable boys."

One old woman was hoping one of the two would dance with her granddaughter tonight. She pointed at the girl who was probably about fifteen or sixteen. "Her name is Patricia," the woman said, "Beautiful, isn't she?"

"Quite." "Very."

The two had responded at the same time, but Eddie could tell Stan was more intrigued than Richie. Eddie checked his Apple Watch. It was 7:30. They'd been at this for half an hour.

Anti-Prom began at 7:00 because Real Prom started at 8:00. Once the doors were open at Real Prom for an hour, they officially closed so no new partygoers could enter. Anti-Prom just had to keep people here as much as possible until 9:00 and then the party could die out naturally whenever after that.

Looking around the room, Eddie estimated there must have been at least forty youths present, just standing doing nothing except for a pair of toddlers chasing each other around the room. Despite the stillness, it somehow already smelled like sweat.

Eddie searched around for the other losers who were currently pouring themselves drinks. He made eye contact with Bev. She gave him an apologetic look and tilted her head to the side. Eddie frowned. When Bill saw that he waved Eddie to come over.

Eddie looked back at Stan and Richie. Stan was so quiet both in his physical and verbal demeanor, patiently nodding his head and offering sweet smiles as he let others speak.

Richie was the opposite. He was loud and gesticulative. He wore a variety of expressions on his face as he spoke. He'd also been the one to happily introduce Eddie to everyone they had spoken to thus far.

Everyone was pleasant, but boring.

Richie had warned Eddie that the first hour would be a drag, but he hadn't expected to be the balloon on the back of the float as the main event paraded through town.

Eddie wasn't even talking much to the people he was meeting other than a few greetings and introductions so he took up Bill's offer and walked towards the other losers.

Eddie must've not looked so pleased because when he joined them against the wall Mikey hung his arm around Eddie's shoulders and Bev gave him a noogie. Ben poured an extra soda and handed it to Eddie saying, "I think I remembered you liking Coke the best."

"No way," Bill said, "He likes Pepsi."

"I like both," Eddie chuckled, "Thanks Ben."

"Yeah, but which is your favorite?" Mike asked.

Eddie was about to answer, but suddenly the music cut out with a shrill squeak of the speakers. It felt like Eddie was the only person in the room to flinch.

Three men stood in the middle of the open floor, presumably where the dancing should occur. There was RL Tozier, Rabbi Uris, and a man who introduced himself as Father Dan. The three RLs took the mic to introduce the night, starting with Father Dan, then Rabbi Uris, and ending with RL Tozier:

"Thank you all for coming out tonight," he began. Eddie zoned in and out of his speech. He didn't mean to, but he couldn't help but get distracted by how similar he looked to Richie. "I can say that this is the biggest turnout we've gotten to date!" They shared the same face structure of narrow jaws, sharp cheekbones, and low set brows. RL Tozier was just slightly chunky whereas Richie was bony, but other than that and the beard that stood between them, Richie could almost be a carbon copy of his father. The only major difference was the eyes. Richie got his brown eyes and hereditary poor vision from his mom. They both had deep brown eyes and bushels of wildly black eyelashes and thick rimmed glasses to frame them.

"-being responsible and respectable young adults." At that, Eddie looked across the room and caught Richie's eyes from the other side. Richie grinned at him and winked so quickly Eddie almost missed it. He chuckled to himself as did Richie, who was suddenly rubbing his arm up and down as if he was cold. Stan knocked Richie's shoulder with a smug look and Richie bumped right back.

"So enjoy the night and let's have some fun!" Eddie noticed that RL Tozier hadn't ended his speech with "God Bless," like Father Dan had or with a Hebrew phrase that he couldn't understand, like Rabbi Uris had. He just ended it like he was taking to partygoers, not like he was giving a service. Eddie liked that.

Richie and Stan beelined for their friends. Richie went straight up to Eddie, "Where'd you go?" he asked, "I wanted to introduce you to everyone in my dad's congregation at least." He seemed all pouty. Cute.

But Eddie also suddenly felt incredibly guilty. "Oh. I uh. I'm sorry, Rich-"

"I called him over," Bill said, "He met almost all of them anyway. Give him a break."

Richie blinked at Bill. Then blinked at Eddie. Then looked down at the cup in Eddie's hand. He grabbed it and took a sip. "Ugh, why are you drinking Coke when you're a Ginger Ale guy?" he asked.

Eddie facepalmed.

"Awe." Ben frowned.

"Dance floor is open, boys," Bev said as she walked backwards towards the empty floor so she could maintain eye contact with the group, "You know what that means."

"Heck yeah!" Richie cheered.

Heck? Oh right. Religious Center. No cussing.

The Losers Club were the only people on the dance floor for almost an hour. They were whooping and hollering and dancing in ways that many humans have never danced before and that's because you would have to _try_ to dance as badly as they were dancing.

They were trying, of course.

Eddie, whose typical go-to dance move in any other situation would've been just fist pounding the air, was incredibly grateful for this.

Richie, Bev, and Mike were the only ones of the group who could and who did transition between unspeakable dance moves to actually popping off. At quite a few points the three would dance together all smooth-like and then Richie would glide his way back to Eddie, smirk down at him, then immediately break and start shimmying like an idiot. It made Eddie smile every time.

Their legs and arms swung all over the place and all around each other and they all sang along to the (extremely clean) music. All the songs were hits from the early 2000s that Eddie was used to at all of his middle school dances.

"This playlist rocks!" He laughed over the speakers that were thankfully at a fuller volume now.

"Thanks, it's mine!" Stan called back, "And right about now..." a slow song started playing, "the obligatory slow song of the night."

The song was "You And Me" by Lighthouse.

Before then, all of the losers were dancing together sporadically. Now, they paired up with their dates and they all did an extremely exaggerated version of the stereotypical _arms length apart_. Bev and Ben and Mike and Bill were all _two_ arms length apart from each other because they held each other by the wrists instead of the shoulders.

Stan, Richie, and Eddie formed a medium sized circle between their outstretched arms, hands to shoulders. Richie was mouthing the words of the song, throwing his head back and body so into it that his glasses continuously shifted up and down his nose. Stan and Eddie were practically pissing themselves with laughter.

Until around halfway through the song, the girl Eddie recognized from before, Patricia, approached them. She tapped Stan's shoulder. "Hey, I was wondering if I could steal Stan for the last bit of this dance?" she asked, "As long as you'd want to, and if that's okay with you guys."

"Yes." And then Stan immediately broke the circle to follow her. He turned around quickly to double peace sign at the boys and then spun on his heel back to Patricia.

"My man," Richie nodded with a grin.

Eddie and Richie tried to continue dancing to the song after Stan left, but for whatever reason, they just couldn't. It wasn't one or the other. It was mutual. And they could just read it in each other's eyes. "Let's grab some pizza," Eddie offered.

"Heck yeah."

When they sat at an otherwise empty table with their cold slices and looked out at the dance floor, it somehow made sense that they didn't fit in the puzzle.

The floor was now filled with old couples hugging as they shifted their weight from foot to foot - including all of the RLs and their wives. Then there was Stan and Patricia who were awkwardly swaying holding hands, but both smiling as they moved around. Bev and Ben, even at two arms length apart, smiled sincerely at one another and just fit together. And Mike and Bill were playing the air guitar at that point trying to outperform the other.

Every single person out there looked at their partner like they were the only other person in the room.

But Eddie and Richie had felt surrounded.

Eddie bumped their knees together under the table. They looked at each other, each boy mid-bite. Richie had his hair down and the way his curls framed his forehead and cheeks was enough to make Eddie's cold pizza melt in his mouth somehow, even if Richie's cheeks were stuffed with food.

Richie's cheeks were red, probably from all of the dancing.

Eddie's cheeks were pink. Cute, cute, _cute_!

Richie shoved more of the slice into his mouth all while maintaining direct eye contact with Eddie. "Gaaahnn." He looked like he was unhinging his jaw.

Eddie scrunched his nose in disgust, "You 'r gonna chock-" he pushed through a mouth full of pizza.

They both started giggling until Richie laughed a bit too hard and spat some pizza out and then Eddie laughed so hard that he spat some pizza out and at this point a new fast and loud song was playing but they didn't even notice that their laughter was drowned out by it because from where they were sitting, they were the only people in the room.


	4. Couch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> QUICK NOTE: If you haven't seen, but plan on seeing the film "About Time" on Netflix, this chapter contains a major spoiler. So if you want to watch it, watch that first before reading this.  
> You don't need to watch the film to understand the chapter.

Richie thought that since he was the kid of an RL, Eddie's mom would grant him the perk that every other parent in the neighborhood would: instant trust.

He knew what she was like because Eddie told him, and he'd also met her a few times when picking up Eddie from his house before they ever went out.

It didn't matter that Richie was an RL kid to her, she didn't trust anyone but herself around Eddie.

That's why even though they went to Anti-Prom together, it still took a lot of convincing to let Eddie hang out afterwards. "Besides, he's right next door. We're only a yard away if he needs you," Richie had said.

This was the first year Richie had left the party before it ended. Usually he would wait until everyone was gone and helped his dad and Stan's family clean up the basement. This particular night however, Richie proclaimed another one of his pesky migraines and he and Eddie biked home. After teaming up against Mrs. Kaspbrak, they were finally sitting in Richie's basement watching a film, each boy right up against their armrest and leaving room for a third nonexistent person between them.

Richie really did feel like his head was cracking open at the moment, but it wasn't one of his classic headaches. It was a tempest of aching thoughts slamming through his brain. All he could see in his mind's eye was Eddie at Anti-Prom:

***

As they'd been finishing up their pizzas, two girls approached them. Richie knew them from Rabbi Uris's congregation that Richie attended each weekend. They were sisters, Jessica and Rebecca; Jessica was sixteen and Rebecca was eight. The two looked very similar, but in all the places Rebecca was adorable, Jessica was beautiful.

"Richie, Rebecca was hoping to dance with you," Jessica said. Rebecca looked shyly up at Richie.

He chuckled with a bright smile, "Thought you'd never ask, Rebecca," he said. He looked at Eddie, "Meet me out there after this song."

Richie took Rebecca's hand and led her to the dance floor where he put her feet on the tips of his shoes and danced with her in a fashion a lot more tame than he had been earlier.

Soon enough, Richie was also dancing with two toddlers that joined in and he was having a great time. He could also feel the eyes of parents on him - his own and others'. He didn't let that diminish his fun. Sure, can't accidentally trip your kid and make them cry, no pressure, but they all were giggling so much at Richie's funny dances and he loved making people laugh. It made him laugh too.

Until he looked up for a second. Besides a small wall of cameras by the kids' parents recording him dancing with their little humans, Richie's eyes flashed to Eddie, who was up and dancing with beautiful Jessica.

Eddie looked like he was having so much fun. His eyes were sparkling, hair flopping, shoulders rolling, and body swaying about hers to the beat of Usher's OMG.

He stumbled over himself a bit and the laughter of three little kids watching him brought him back to reality. They finished up the song and Richie told the kids, "Go dance with each other or your parents or something," so quietly and so distractedly that they hardly heard what he said as he stammered over towards Eddie.

As he approached, Jessica was hugging Eddie goodbye and was walking past Richie towards Rebecca. "Thanks for dancing with her, Richie. I really appreciate it. She really likes you," she said. She waved and smiled at him. Richie knew Jessica for a few years. She was really nice.

He got to Eddie and felt his head spinning a little bit. "Hey Eds," he pushed through a smile, "You and Jessica hit it off, huh?"

"Yeah," Eddie chuckled as he scratched at the back of his neck, "she's nice. She said you're also a big hit at the Shabbat services."

"You guys we're talking about me?"

"Yeah. She wondered how we knew each other since I'm new." Eddie looked like he was searching Richie's face as if examining him. Maybe Richie shouldn't have asked that. He didn't even know why he had. It just sort of slipped out. That sort of thing wasn't uncommon for Richie who hardly had a filter in the space between his brain and his mouth, but tonight, around Eddie, at that moment, he felt like maybe he should've had a bigger filter. He felt like he looked like an idiot. Standing there instead of dancing, dumb look on his pink face, and slow blinking eyes.

He wondered if anyone was still recording him.

"Richie, are you okay?" Eddie asked.

"You don't look so good," Bill said.

The losers were suddenly around him.

"You're kinda pale, Rich," Ben said.

He felt suffocated.

"What's wrong?" Bev asked.

"Migraine."

"I thought you grew out of those," Stan said.

"Do you want a ride home?" Mike asked, "I can pull my truck round front."

"I need some air," he replied, "I think I'll walk home. Thanks anyway you guys."

Richie was already stepping out of their encirclement when he heard Eddie say from behind him, "I'll make sure he gets home alright."

The bike ride home helped. The cold air against his burning cheeks and through his heavy hair cooled his migraine down enough to be forgotten while he haggled with Eddie's mom.

But now in his basement with Eddie two feet away from him, Richie's aching head was at the forefront of his attention. Why couldn't he just burn the image of Eddie dancing with Jessica out of his head? Why did he care so much? Why did he suddenly want to hate her?

He guessed deep down he knew well enough why. But the storm in his brain never let him reach the conclusion stuck in the darkest crevices of his subconscious.

He knew he was jealous. That was for sure. That was as far as he'd gotten. He wasn't sure who or what he was jealous of. Eddie making new friends? Replacing him? How he could dance with her easily one on one but not with Richie? Of Jessica herself?

So many questions. Too many questions. He couldn't concentrate on the film in front of him.

"Ugh," he groaned.

"Yeah, a bit cheesy, I know," Eddie said obliviously, "but I thought it was kind of touching."

They were watching _About Time_ on Netflix and apparently Eddie had found it _really_ touching because he was on the brink of tears.

If Richie had been paying attention earlier, he probably would've changed the film to something else so he wouldn't have to make a kid whose dad died of cancer watch a film half about this guy's dad dying of cancer.

"Oh shit, Eddie," Richie said as he scrambled for the remote, "I wasn't thinking."

Eddie put a hand over Richie's so he wouldn't end the film. "No. It's a good movie," Eddie said. It was a really good movie, that's why Richie had put it on. He just hadn't thought about the ramifications of the subject matter.

Richie slowly released the remote from his grasp and let it fall back down between them on the couch. Eddie's hand lingered on top of his for a moment longer before sliding back into his lap. His eyes were focused on the screen, but Richie's eyes were glued to Eddie.

Eddie could feel Richie's stare. One night on the awnings he had told Richie that his dad died of cancer when he was five and that he couldn't even remember his dad so it wasn't a big deal but, "It's just that sometimes I can't help but wonder how things might've been different if he was still around." Eddie was whispering even though no one else was home yet.

Richie had never heard him sound so fragile before.

"And I know I probably shouldn't," Eddie said, "because it wouldn't make a difference, but I just can't help it sometimes."

"It's okay to do that, Eddie. It's normal to think about the _what if_ ," Richie said.

"My _what if_ 's drive me insane." Eddie's fingers fumbled together. "The lady in the apartment next to ours in New York told me that she used to be really good friends with my parents when my dad was still alive. When I asked, she said that my mom used to be normal before he got sick. That she was fun. But then when he died she got really protective over me and that they stopped hanging out because of it. Sometimes I wonder if he were still alive... what would my life be like now? I guess my mom would be normal. She said that my dad wanted to move us to California one day, but she never talks about him so I don't know why - was he into surfing or did he just want better weather? Would I be living there now? Would I have a little brother or sister? And like... would my family be happy?" Eddie took a shaky breath.

He wasn't crying, but Richie could still see some tears brimming his eyes. Eddie wiped at them with the back of his wrist and then finally looked at Richie.

"I guess that's one thing I do know," Eddie chuckled quietly. Richie didn't know what he was talking about yet, "If we had moved to California I wouldn't know all the people I do now. Like my friends back in New York and I... I wouldn't have met you. I think I was supposed to meet you." Eddie smiled a bit shyly as he said the words.

Richie felt a warm sensation slam into his chest. He blinked, then opened his arms, and said "C'mere."

Eddie shimmied from his spot on the couch and practically onto Richie's lap. He put his back to the armrest and head in Richie's arm.

Richie wrapped his arms around Eddie and hugged the boy into his chest. "Awe Spaghetti, you _do_ love me," Richie cooed before nudging his nose into Eddie's head. He started to kiss his head pretty aggressively until Eddie started squealing and shoving at him.

"Don't call me that! I fucking HATE you Richie," he screeched.

Richie loosened his grip and backed up his head so he could look down at Eddie. One of the tears had rolled down his cheek during the struggle, but it was long forgotten to Eddie who was pouting up at Richie.

"I think I was supposed to meet you too," Richie whispered.

The corners of Eddie's lips turned up and he had the sweetest smile on his face. Cute cute _cute._

Richie's hand automatically reached for Eddie's face, but he averted it to his head so he could run his fingers through his hair. Eddie's hair was much shorter than Richie's, but definitely softer.

"This is weird," Eddie said.

Richie's hand paused against his scalp before falling out of his hair and onto his knee. "Oh, sorry I-"

Eddie giggled, "No, I just meant that usually I'm the one playing with your hair."

"Oh."

Eddie took Richie's hand and guided it back to his hair. When Richie resumed his prior actions, albeit very much so in a daze, Eddie seemed to curl into him further like a cat seeking warmth. His eyes were closing now and he just looked so peaceful. So sweet.

Then, as the credits of the film rolled, the boys could hear the front door of the house swing open and two sets of footsteps walking around. Richie's parents were talking. He couldn't quite make out what they were saying, but he heard his mom say his name. Then, their footsteps were getting closer.

Eddie's eyes were open again, but he was still cuddled into Richie.

Richie double tapped his shoulder and Eddie quickly and smoothly transitioned back to his original position on the opposite side of the couch, leaving a wide safe gap between their bodies as a result.

Just as he reached it, the basement door swung open and Richie's parents walked down until they were just low enough on the steps to see the boys.

"Hello boys," Wentworth greeted, "Just wanted to see if you were feeling any better, Son."

Richie smiled, "Loads. Thanks, Dad. Sorry I had to dip early."

"Don't worry about it, I'm glad you're feeling better," he said.

"Did you take some Aspirin?" Maggie asked.

"Yeah, Eddie's practically a doctor, Mom, he took care of me," Richie chuckled.

"Okay well do you boys need anything?" she asked.

"No, we're good-"

"No snacks or anything?"

"We already had some-"

"You sure you don't want something to dri-"

"Mom, please," Richie put on an accent, "We're all good. _I'm a good host. Pip and tally ho. Get yourselves to bed you young yipper snappers._ "

The Tozier parents were never really sure how to respond to Richie whenever he did his accents. His father usually just nodded and his mother would crack an odd smile. That's what they did just then until Wentworth ushered Maggie back up the stairs as all four of them exchanged "goodnight"s.

As soon as he heard the basement door close, Richie sprang up from the couch. He handed Eddie the remote. "Find something else to watch while I lock the door," he said with a salute.

Eddie saluted back.

Then Richie headed up the stairs.

Eddie stood up as he skimmed through Netflix. When Richie had achieved his mission and came back down the stairs, he saw this. He was confused as to why, but figured maybe Eddie needed to get closer to the screen to read the film descriptions. So he just let him be and sat on the couch to start picking at his nails.

Meanwhile, Eddie knew exactly why he was standing and it had nothing to do with reading descriptions, he could see just fine from the couch. It was just that -he hated that he was even thinking everything he was thinking right now- just that being cuddled into Richie with Richie pressing a million kisses against him felt really nice.

He was worried that if he kept sitting on one end of the couch that when Richie came back down, he'd just return to the opposite side once again and he wasn't sure why but the thought of that killed him.

He had another thought killing him just then. He had an idea for a plan to get that feeling of affection from Richie again. He wasn't even reading what he was scrolling through because he was shaking with nerves and his brain couldn't focus on anything else.

He pressed play on some stupid looking Aussie romcom and turned around to face the couch. He told himself to stop thinking about it so that he wouldn't chicken out last minute and just do it.

He walked over to Richie and straddled his legs.

Richie's brows raised. He had no idea what was going on or where to put his hands, but Eddie's hips were a start. He slowly looked up at him. This wasn't the same as when Eddie looked down at Richie from his bed while Richie laid on the floor of his room. Eddie's face was only just slightly higher than Richie's - practically eye level. He didn't look funny from here.

Eddie also had no idea what to do, also specifically with his hands, so he just slid his arms around Richie's neck until they were hugging.

This was alright, Richie could handle hugging.

He then had an intrusive thought.

It was one of Bill Hader. Well, of Bill Hader on SNL specifically. It was one of the Kissing Family bits, where Bill Hader's character was supposed to give his brother a wet willy but instead of using his finger to do it, he just stuck his tongue in the ear instead. It was hilarious. The live audience was laughing and when Richie had watched it on tv, he was laughing too.

Before he knew what he was doing he whispered, "Wet willy" and then stuck his tongue against Eddie's earlobe.

Eddie shrieked and started falling to his side so he could lay down on the couch and escape Richie's disgusting nature, but his arms were still loosely wrapped around Richie's neck and he ended up pulling him down with him. It felt slightly purposeful.

Eddie kept squealing and squirming, but he never told Richie to get off of him so he didn't. He kept poking at Eddie's earlobe with his tongue. And eventually, Eddie stopped struggling against Richie altogether. Richie was now just lightly licking Eddie's lobe without any movement from the other boy other than his hands kind of gripping at Richie's shirt and pulling him closer.

Richie started sucking at it and all Eddie did in response was tangle their legs together. A small hum escaped Richie's lips and against Eddie's skin and he couldn't help but wonder if this is what everyone from Derry High was doing at their after proms.

Eddie hummed back before his mouth fell open and some puffs of hot air traveled out to hit Richie's neck.

One of Eddie's hands moved to lightly rub over Richie's chest and he shifted their legs again.

Richie wasn't stupid, he knew Eddie shifted to just the right spot that their groins lined up.

Neither one of them were brave enough to rub their jeans together, but Richie kept sucking on Eddie's lobe. He got so into it that he was mostly on top of him now and he was biting and licking and kissing just below Eddie's ear.

He kept thinking _Straight boys don't do this. Straight boys don't do this. Straight boys don't do this._

Somehow, that made him want more.

But he knew he wouldn't do anything about that.

"This is weird too," Eddie murmured with a slight chuckle, as if that would make this scenario nonchalant.

Richie was glad he did because that meant he could pretend this was nonchalant too.

"Mm," he hummed in agreement as he nipped at the same spot repeatedly.

The two were sinking into one another and fuck it, it felt really good, so Eddie hummed a "mmm" back.

It wasn't until both of their phone alarms started blaring at the same time that they'd realized their hands had been all over each other. They detached so quickly that Richie was dizzy as he sat straight up to turn off his phone alarm.

Eddie did the same.

They wordlessly scrambled to clean up their things on the coffee table in front of them. They didn't look at each other once. Richie was scared if he looked at Eddie he'd see the huge hickey that would definitely be there by now and possibly a look of regret.

Both boys shook with confusion as they gathered trash and Eddie's stuff.

"Got you charger?" Richie asked.

"Yup."

"Got everything?"

"Yeah."

They headed up the stairs and threw out wrappers and chip bags in the garbage before they tiptoed out the front door so as to not wake up Richie's parents.

It was a lot easier to face Eddie in the dark of night. Richie was used to having these feelings around Eddie in the dark.

Eddie checked his Apple Watch. It was almost midnight, which is when they told his mother he'd be back by. He could see her bedroom light on where she was waiting for him from Richie's front door step.

Richie closed the door behind them and leaned against it as he looked down at Eddie. Eddie looked back up at him. "You were right," he whispered, "Stan really did third wheel."

Richie cracked a grin and chuckled. "Yeah, but he found someone else to have fun with."

Eddie's nose scrunched in that adorable way it did sometimes whenever Richie said something a certain way. "I had a really good time tonight. It was a lot of fun," he said.

Richie's arms were crossed over his chest. He nodded. "I did too."

Eddie was waiting for his somewhat usual goodnight forehead kiss, but Richie was leaning heavily back into his door and he could tell that he wasn't going to get one.

Eddie's face got hot. He pushed through whatever it was that he was feeling. "And thanks for listening about my dad and not thinking it was stupid."

At that, Richie loosened up a bit and his arms dropped to his sides. "Hey, of course, Eddie," Richie said, "It wasn't stupid, Buddy."

Eddie's nose scrunched again. "Well, goodnight, _Buddy_."

Eddie thought for a moment. Then he stepped on his tiptoes and gave Richie a light peck just below his ear.

He backed away, stepping off the doorstep, and onto the pavement. He waved goodbye and when Richie offered a shy wave back, Eddie started walking home.

"Goodnight," Richie said.

He wasn't sure if it was loud enough for Eddie to hear or not.


	5. Awning

**Sunday 10:30 AM**

**Bill:** Quarry at noon?

 **Bill:** I'll bring lemonade

 **Ben:** I'll make the sandwiches this time :)

 **Bev:** I'm in!

 **Bev:** I can bring a fruit platter :D

 **Richie:** girls and their fucking fruit platters

 **Richie** : i'm here 4 it

 **Mike:** Anyone need a ride?

 **Stan:** I slept over Bill's house so could you pick us up from there?

 **Mike:** Sure thing

 **Bill:** @eddie???

 **Bev:** omg Richie killed Eddie

 **Bev:** he finally snapped

 **Bev:** Eddie did Richie kill you after anti-prom yesterday?

 **Richie:** yes. eds is dead. we will meet at the quarry today for his memoriam

 **Stan:** rip

 **Mike:** f

 **Bill:** f

 **Ben:** f

**Sunday 11:45 AM**

**Eddie:** sorry guys, can't today, I'm video chatting with friends from back home all day

That was odd. Typically Eddie reserved his video chats with old friends during Shabbat services when he couldn't be hanging out with Richie anyway. (There were a few times when Eddie hung out with the rest of the losers when Stan and Richie were at Shabbat, but he usually tried to just organize it that way since they didn't like hanging out when the entire group couldn't be there.)

 **Bill:** That's okay! What about at night? We can all hang at mine

 **Eddie:** I'm hanging out with Jessica tonight

 **Eddie:** but I'll see you all next weekend!

 **Richie:** @mikey can you pick me up too?

The boys were outside Richie's house five minutes later, all three stuffed in the cabin.

As Richie walked outside, Stan could already see he was in a bad mood despite his grand smile and huge "Hey fuckfaces!" He knew this because Richie had a book tucked into his side. Last time Richie brought a book to a quarry hangout session was when his cat died. That was three years ago.

Richie hopped into the bed of the truck as the boys greeted him.

He pressed his back into the cabin of the truck instead of standing up and whooping as they drove. Stan leaned his face against the window in dismay already knowing what he was up against. Stan has known Richie the longest, after all. And he had a feeling he already kind of knew what Richie was upset about.

After about an hour in the water, the losers were drying off in the sun on the rocky shore.

He'd acted like his old self in the water, trying to drown Mike and starting splash battles with Bev and Bill, but when they stopped swimming to start their picnic, Stan could feel the tension smoking from Richie.

They were all sitting on logs and boulders around the pile of food they had brought, except for Richie who was behind them laying down on his towel with his head propped up by a pile of his clothes. He sipped lemonade lazily from one hand and held his book open with the other. He was rereading _Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief_ for probably the third time since completing the entire series. (Something about young kids banding together to defeat evil forces was really keen on him.)

The losers were all staring at him by this point; Richie hadn't noticed Bill calling his name.

"Richie!" Bev shouted.

Richie calmly folded his book onto his bare chest and pivoted his head to look at his friends. "Yes?"

"I was asking what you wanted to watch tonight," Bill said, a bit irritated. His eye twitched at the boy, "It's your turn to pick."

Bill hated it whenever someone ostracized themself from the group.

Richie went blank. Last time he chose a film (ie. last night) it hadn't played out exactly how he'd expected it to. What if he messed up again?

"You pick Billy, it's your place," Richie said offhandedly.

"Last time we got off schedule it was Hell and everyone started arguing about who should pick when. We're not doing that again," Bill said, "So pick one. You have until tonight to decide."

Richie considered this for a moment. "Or what?" he asked.

Everyone's brows raised except for Bill's. "Or you're not invited."

Ben's lips formed a small "o."

"Fine," Richie said, "I won't come tonight, I'll go on a date with some heifer instead. Is your mom available tonight Billy?"

"What the fuck? Fuck you."

"Yeah, fuck me."

Richie got to his feet to put his clothes back on and started folding up his towel and shoving it along with his book under his arm.

" _See you fuckers next weekend,_ " Richie grumbled and started to head out through the woods.

He heard murmurs rumble from behind him and then the crackle of stones colliding together as a pair of footsteps jogged to catch up with him. By the time they had, they were in the woods away from the shore.

It was Stan.

"Go away, Stan."

"Not until you tell me what that was about."

"I didn't even do anything! Bill started it."

Stan grabbed Richie's wrist and Richie half heartedly tried to budge away (if he'd used full force his book and towel would've fallen.)

"Richie, you didn't bring your bike, you need us to drive you back anyway."

"I'll walk."

"You can't walk that distance in those!" Richie looked down at his flip flops. He was already starting to feel blisters forming where the twigs from these woods were poking at his feet. "Could you just talk to me for a second?" Stan asked.

Richie stopped walking to face him head on. "Whatcha want to talk about, Stanley?"

"Why're you sad?" Something about Stan wording it that way - _sad._ Not "upset," not "angry," but " _sad._ " It caught Richie off guard.

Richie thought for a moment. "I don't really know."

"Okay," Stan dropped Richie's wrist and tapped his fingers against his own palm, something he did when considering his options. "Does it have to do with Eddie..." When Stan saw Richie's face change he quickly added, "...not being here?"

Richie nodded a little bit because he was so nervous he felt like he could cry. He hadn't even realized how nervous he was until Stan asked that. He gathered himself enough to manage whispering, "I'm scared."

Stan softened a bit at that. "Why are you scared?"

Richie looked around. They were surrounded with nothing but trees and earth.

"I'm scared I'm going to lose him," Richie mumbled.

Stan felt like he was treading on thin ice, unsure of how to approach the situation. Richie hadn't spoken to Stan much about how he felt about Eddie so Stan wasn't entirely sure what he was meant to assume or not meant to assume. "In what way?" he asked finally.

"You know how I am! It'll scare him away and he'll stop wanting to be friends with me."

"Oh. Okay."

Stan understood what friendship meant to Richie. It was the same way for all of the losers. Friendship was sacred and only to be shared with a minimal few. Richie had opened up and just let Eddie in so quickly without bracing himself for the possibility of Eddie not wanting to spend every waking moment with him.

"Richie, you're crazy."

"I know, and he'll figure that out and-"

"He already has, ass-hat. He spends every single weekend with us, of fucking course he knows you're crazy."

Richie's face mushed up, partially because he found Stan's words humorous and partially because he was confused.

"Eddie's spent every weekend with us since he's moved here, Rich, _every. weekend_. And that's not even including almost every week day too after school, and probably all the other days that you guys see each other without the rest of us," Stan pointed out. "He finally got to meet new people here for the first time _yesterday_ and you're mad about it? Isn't it kinda selfish to expect him to only hang out with you?" Stan chuckled lightly as if to go a little easier on him.

Richie made a noise. He knew Stan was right and he was kind of embarrassed by it. Especially since Richie and Eddie already had the best friend talk. But for some reason Eddie skipping out today was different. If only Stan knew about what had happened last night, then he'd fully understand why Richie was scared.

But what he said next made him feel a little better:

"And wouldn't it mean more to you if he made new friends but still picked you as his best one because he likes you more than them instead of it being because you're the only person he knows?" Stan lightly bumped Richie's shoulder.

Richie was still scared, but Stan was right. If he and Eddie could get through whatever last night was and if Eddie ended up still wanting to hang out with Richie over other Derry kids, then that _would_ mean more than just hanging out with Richie because he didn't have anyone else to hang out with.

He was also still jealous. And he definitely hated Jessica [for some reason] now. But he was also slightly more calm.

He would just have to push his nerves away until next time he saw Eddie and gauge how awkward or not things would be between them from here on out.

And hey, if everything went wrong, which would be super awful and hurt like Hell, probably have Richie curled up on the floor of his bedroom and unable to ever go out onto his awning ever again, well then at least he'd still have Stan. And the rest of the losers. And poor, good intentioned Bill.

"Baywatch," Richie said.

"Huh?" Stan laughed.

"That's my pick for movie night." Richie slung an arm around Stan as they started heading back to the quarry. He was already imagining himself tackling Bill to the ground and apologizing about calling his mom a heifer because she wasn't she was actually kinda hot and he'd totally get in on that if it weren't for the fact that her son was one of his best friends and not for any other reason at all and that if anyone's mom was a heifer it was actually Eddie's and Bill would forgive him immediately in the hopes that that would tame Richie.

"Look Stanley," Richie pointed to a branch as they walked, "What kind of bird are those?"

Stan looked up at the nest and quirked his head to the side. "Those are two male cerulean warblers," he said.

"How can you tell they're males?"

"The males have a black line across their chest, like a necklace." Stan gestured towards the birds, "See? They both have one."

Richie did see.

"Why are they both by a nest?" Richie asked.

"No idea," Stan said, "Never seen anything like it... Sometimes Nature just works in mysterious ways."

Richie squeezed Stan's shoulder as they crossed underneath the branch that the birds were on. "Maybe they're the best of pals. Their names could be Ran and Stichie."

"That's the laziest pair of mashup names I've ever heard."

"Did you score Patty's number last night?"

"Shut up."

"I'll take that as a yes."

Later that night Richie walked home from Bill's house. In the moment it had been a great time and _Baywatch_ was hilarious. Bill invited him to spend the night, but Richie wasn't in the headspace for a sleepover. Especially after watching a film jam-packed with hot summer bodies and why couldn't he keep his eyes of Zac Efron and maybe his head was starting to ache again and Stan was doing a great job of taking care of him but he was shaking and nervous because of Zac Efron, which wasn't too out of the ordinary but he was hyper aware of it now that he was alone in the dark.

Richie was on his awning. It was the first time he was alone out here for over a month. Usually Eddie would text him to meet outside and they'd talk from their respective awnings until Eddie got tired and they'd both crawl back inside their windows to sleep.

Richie remembered how he used to love being up here alone, just him and the night sky. He remembered not so long ago when the house right in front of him had new homeowners and he prayed that they wouldn't use the room that led to their awning across from his.

But now, without Eddie there, it felt empty.

Eddie's light wasn't on. Richie looked at the window and remembered all the mornings when he was getting ready for school that he'd look out his window and Eddie would be making faces at him from across the way. He wondered if Eddie would be making faces at him tomorrow morning.

Richie rested his head up against the side of his house and closed his eyes.

He heard the rustling of leaves scattering across his roof, the hum of the streetlight, and the chirps of crickets. Part of him wished he could retreat into the grass with them. He could just lay down on the green earth and sink until he disappeared. Was that possible? Stan had told him that sometimes Nature works in mysterious ways. Maybe she could grant him this one favor.

"Hey. Thought I'd find you out here," he heard Eddie say.

Richie tilted his head back down and saw Eddie smiling from his window, bedroom light now turned on.

"Hey." For the first time ever, Richie didn't know what else to say.

Eddie crawled out of his window and walked to the edge of his awning. He hesitated for a second, but before Richie could stand to offer him a hand across, Eddie hopped over onto Richie's side all by himself. He walked over to Richie and sat down between him and the edge of his awning so he could see up the street.

"So this is the view from your side, huh?" Eddie chuckled.

At the end of the street just on the horizon line from where he sat, he could see the religious center that he went to each week since moving here. The moon stamped the sky a deep purple just above it, but Eddie's eyes focused more so on the small, narrow steeple of the center outstretching up to the Heavens as two hands coming to prayer would.

The night Eddie's father died it had been a full moon, just like tonight. When he asked his mother where Daddy was, she pointed out the window to the moon and said _Daddy's right there, he'll always be there. Even when you can't see him Eddie, he's up there looking down at us._

Since then, if only for a split second each night, he'd see his father in the moon. Eddie wondered if when Richie looked up the street if he saw his own father in the steeple of the religious center.

"It's beautiful," Eddie whispered.

"Yeah," Richie whispered back, "Beautiful."

Eddie could've been imagining it, but in the corner of his eye it looked like Richie had been looking at him instead of the horizon as he said that.

Richie coughed and then started fumbling with his fingers like he did sometimes around Eddie.

"How are your friends from New York?" Richie asked.

"Yeah, they're good. School's almost out for them too so everyone's getting pretty excited. Sam brought a live chicken to his classes on senior prank day," Eddie said.

"Isn't Sam a junior like us?" Richie asked.

"Yup."

"Nice. And uh... How was Jessica?" Richie asked, "Was it uh-" Richie coughed again while trying to clear his throat, "was it a date?"

Eddie shifted his body so he could angle himself a little bit towards Richie. He gave him a _Are you serious?_ look.

"I didn't go out with Jessica you idiot," Eddie said, "I just needed an excuse for the losers to not see this!" Eddie pointed at the dark, wide hickey under his ear. "I tried for an hour to cover it up with anything I could find in my mom's bathroom and when nothing worked I finally had to say I was busy with my New York friends. And then when Bill asked about tonight I had to come up with something that could possibly explain a hickey for next time I see them!"

"Oh..."

"Yeeeaaah, _oh_. What kind of moron leaves a hickey this huge on someone's fucking ear you fucktard?" Eddie was spewing words faster than Richie could keep up with.

"Sorry, I didn't mean-"

"I've gotten hickies here, and here, and here," Eddie pointed to his lower neck, chest, and along his v-line as he listed, "because those are normal places to get hickies. Jesus H. Christ, Rich."

Eddie realized he was rambling and decided to take a deep breath. Inhale. Then, exhale, but it came out with a little laughter. Small little bundles of laughter and sweetness that Richie wanted to breathe in.

Eddie knocked their shoulders together with the type of smile on his face that was searching for a smile on Richie's. For the first time since they'd met, the smile Richie returned wasn't genuine. It was forced because Richie was nervous. He felt his blood shiver and suddenly the shingles beneath him felt as cold and as slippery as ice. He picked at his fingernails blindly.

Eddie saw all of this. He knew how Richie was feeling because he was nervous too.

"Eddie... Why um... Why didn't you tell me that earlier? You could've texted me. I thought you were mad at me."

"I thought you were mad at _me_ ," Eddie said. "No offense but when we were saying goodbye last night you came across as pretty standoffish."

Richie recalled how they ended things at his front door. "Fuck, you're right. Sorry," Richie said, "I don't know what I was thinking. I was just trying to play it cool. I wasn't mad. You weren't mad?"

"No."

"You're not mad now?"

"You know, Richie," Eddie chuckled, "this was one of my first days of not seeing you since I got here and somehow I still _kinda_ missed you." He chuckled and tapped his knee against Richie's in the hope that the boy would burst out with the ridiculous laughter he typically did, but a stammered chuckle came out instead.

Eddie took one last look at the steeple looming over them from the distance before focusing back on Richie. Eddie felt his fingers trembling so he moved his hand to steady them as he dragged them across the smooth fabric of his shorts. He had been just as nervous last night right before he took a big chance. He was going to give himself this second chance to be that bold one more time.

He bit his lip and told himself he only needed thirty seconds of courage:

"Richie?"

"Yeah?"

"Remember that night I slept over... when you said that you were confused about who and what you're supposed to want?"

"Yes."

Eddie let his brows furrow as he gave Richie a final once over with his eyes. This could be it. Eddie could be ruining everything. But he needed to know.

When the pause drew out another moment, Richie looked at Eddie and as soon as their eyes met, Eddie asked.

"Do I... confuse you?"

Richie scanned Eddie's eyes. There wasn't any malice in them, he knew. But it was too dark to read what exactly his eyes were saying, so Richie looked back down at his hands where his thumbs pushed at each other. He munched on the inside of his lower lip as he thought. He couldn't speak. He'd cry if he spoke. So he just nodded his head, all while looking down at his lap like a shameful puppy.

Richie felt his eyes brim with tears when Eddie didn't say anything. There was an accidental sharp intake of air through his nostrils that probably gave him away.

He had fucked everything up, he knew.

But he never lied to Eddie. He couldn't start now.

"Richie."

"Mm?"

"You confuse me too."

Richie's head shot up at that. He was dizzy now and sure, the headache in combination with him snapping his head up quickly didn't help, but he knew the real reason his head was spinning was because of Eddie.

An entirely new sweat broke out down his neck and spine.

"Really?" he asked, just to make sure he wasn't hearing things.

"Really."

The two just stared at each other for a few seconds. The sky was getting darker, closer to pitch black now. Eddie could see half of Richie's face from the streetlight. He looked so relieved. Eddie was relieved too.

"Eddie can I-"

"Yes."

And Richie quickly leaned forward and kissed him.

It was short, but fuck, it was everything.

The boys separated just far back enough to look into each other's eyes properly. Slowly, small smiles crept onto their faces.

Eddie felt Richie's hand starting to encircle his so he laced their fingers together. Richie's palm was clammy and both their combined sweat resulted in a very wet hand hold.

Eddie wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

"Still confused?" Eddie asked.

"Definitely not," Richie said.

"Me neither." And then Eddie kissed him again.

It was longer this time. They just kept pressing their lips together softly.

Richie felt his heart springing. He'd had kisses that made him feel sparks before. There was something different about this kiss. His head wasn't spinning anymore. Whereas other kisses had made him lightheaded in the past, kissing Eddie was like laying in the grass of a tall hill and looking up at Cloud 9; he was steady here. He'd never felt so grounded before. He couldn't help but think that this was the way it was supposed to feel; that kissing someone should feel just as right and natural as it does exciting. He could get used to this.

He couldn't wait to get used to this.

Eddie's free hand moved to Richie's cheek in an attempt to keep himself going, but he was smiling even wider into each press of their lips until eventually he was smiling so widely it was too difficult to keep going because by then Richie realized what was going on with Eddie and the same starting happening to him until they were just smiling against each other.

Eddie giggled, but Richie could feel the heat from his burning cheeks. "Sorry," Eddie chuckled.

"Don't be," Richie murmured before peppering small pecks along Eddie's cheek, causing the boy to giggle even more.

Eddie had felt his heart sink before, but he'd never felt it do the opposite. It was all too much for him to process, the feeling in his chest and stomach along with the kisses he was getting now and how much he never wanted them to stop.

He unraveled his fingers from Richie's so he could wrap his arms around his neck. Richie and Eddie hugged often, but never quite this tightly.

"Sleep over," Richie mumbled between pecks.

"It's a school night for you," Eddie groaned.

Richie stopped with the kisses and squeezed Eddie even tighter. "I won't be able to sleep either way, I'll be up thinking about you all night even if you're not with me," Richie said, "so you may as well."

Eddie's bedroom light was still on so he'd have to turn it off. He considered something.

"You could sleep over mine," Eddie said.

Richie loosened his grip on Eddie so that they could look at each other. Richie hadn't ever slept over Eddie's before. They'd hung out in his room only once before. Eddie didn't really like being in his own house because he felt trapped within it most of the time. He always took whatever chance he could get to _not_ be in his house.

But if Richie was the first step to making his new house finally feel like a home, then so be it.

(Plus Richie only had a twin xl size mattress but Eddie had a queen and it also had a layer of memory foam and Richie found it magical.)

"Geez, take me out to dinner first," Richie had said, but he meant "Okay."

They stood up and Richie put one foot across to the Kaspbrak awning and offered Eddie his hand. Eddie took it and also put a foot to the other awning until they were both standing between, facing each other as they did a few times now. But this time was different. Their faces were a lot closer than usual and Richie's freehand squeezed Eddie's hip.

They kissed again because that was a thing they did now and then they continued their journey in through Eddie's window and onto his bed.

Eddie had air conditioning in his room and it was a God send for Richie who only had a ceiling fan and a desk fan. He also thought it was adorable that Eddie put his window AC unit in the window on the far side of the wall even though there was no outlet there because he wanted to keep his other window available to see Richie. So his otherwise decently organized room had a random extension cord running across the floor for his air conditioner.

"What happened to 'small people are always cold?'" Richie chuckled.

"Well yeah that was true in May, but it's fucking hot in June, okay? Well, not as hot here as it would be in New York, but still."

Eddie's walls were lavender from the people that lived there before him, but he never felt the need to change them. Instead he accented them with the pastel yellows of his furniture and decor - except for the myriad of posters and photos on the wall above his desk that were of all random colors, yet they still worked with the room. Most of the photos were from friends back in New York. There was one of Eddie with all of the losers. And right at the bottom, closest to the surface of the desk, was one of Richie smiling brightly and winking at the camera while doing a handstand.

Richie stayed sitting on the bed with his back to the wall and watched while Eddie walked around his room and haphazardly threw some stray pieces of clothing laying around into a hamper.

"Sorry, probably drives you crazy since your room is always so neat," Eddie said, "I'm usually organized but sometimes when I'm down it gets ahead of me."

The same sort of thing happened to Richie, it probably happened to everyone.

"Why've you been down?" Richie asked.

When he finished up gathering the clothes, Eddie dropped his hamper, sprayed some air freshener in front of his air conditioning so it blew out into the room, and then turned off his light.

"It's stupid," Eddie chuckled as he walked back towards his bed.

He crawled on his knees blindly towards Richie whose hands reached out until he grabbed either side of Eddie's hips so he could guide him toward himself. Then once Eddie was in Richie's lap, he moved his hand to caress the side of his neck where his thumb rubbed back and forth.

"We both know you're never stupid." Even in the dark, Richie could just tell Eddie was making a face at that. "Usually. Anyway, you're allowed to get worked up over small stuff. God knows I do."

"I was just kinda throwing a fit after last night," Eddie admitted.

Richie chuckled. "You were worried I didn't like you?"

Eddie grumbled and pushed meekly at Richie's chest. "You were worried I didn't like you either," Eddie whined.

"Not true. Always knew. Would never throw a fit over something like that."

"Oh really?"

"Really."

"Then why'd I get a text from a certain loser today saying I should've been there to _keep the brat in line_?"

Richie almost gasped but stopped himself. "Unrelated circumstances."

"Then why were you shitting yourself like a little bitch on the awning just then if you were _so sure_ I liked you?" Eddie teased, poking at Richie's chest with every word.

"Fuck off!" Richie whisper-yelled before tackling Eddie down, tickling him as he did so.

" _Was it uhhh... w-was it a daaate?"_ Eddie mocked Richie through squeals of laughter.

The bed was quite big, but despite this, once the two calmed down from their fits of giggles, Eddie and Richie hugged each other to sleep.


	6. Epilogue: Summer's End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it pals!  
> Thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoy this chapter.  
> It's not pivotal or anything, but just wraps things up nicely.  
> (Also, I'm aware that Richie was a teary-eyed bitch in previous chapters, but cut him some slack).

Eddie and Richie were making out on Richie's bed, which was definitely helpful for Richie to keep his mind off of tonight.

It was the last week of summer. One more week until they start their senior year together. They'd been together for almost three months at this point. And Richie wanted to be able to hold Eddie's hand between classes in the hallways.

So he was going to come out to his parents tonight and then the losers tomorrow. (He wanted to wait on the losers in case his parents didn't take it well so he could at least end on a better note.)

But he wasn't thinking about that right now.

Richie lifted himself up into a push-up position over Eddie. Eddie smiled up at him and it put a huge grin on Richie's face. His eyes raked over Eddie's neck down to his bare chest. He missed giving him hickies there; as summer began and they all went to the quarry to swim more, Richie had to stop so the losers wouldn't see. He now could pretty much only put hickies in between Eddie's upper thighs where they could be hidden by his swim shorts. There were some there now. Eddie loved getting hickies and Richie loved giving them to him.

Richie also wasn't scared of sex anymore.

Richie looked back up to Eddie's face where his eyes were sparkling with admiration for the boy hovering over him. Richie loved the way Eddie looked at him. He hadn't noticed it at first, but he guessed Eddie had always looked at him that way.

"You're pretty," Richie said.

Eddie reached a hand up to the side of Richie's face and took another second to scan him over, loving how his curls flopped down around his cheeks, how his pecks strained in this position, the smile lines by his eyes. He was beautiful.

"I love you," Eddie whispered.

They started saying that last week. Richie had said it first. Eddie couldn't tell if he had meant to or if it had slipped out when they were out on the awning. Eddie had said it right back immediately. Effortlessly.

Richie dipped his head for a quick peck. "Love you more."

"Do not."

"Do to."

"Do not, Dickwad."

"See, I'd never call you that so that proves I love you more... Dickwad."

"Fuck you."

"Go again? No time. Maybe tomorrow." Richie kissed him one last time before rolling off of the bed to put on some clothes.

"You're right," Eddie said when he looked at his watch.

He jumped up, put his clothes back on, and then walked to Richie's desk to use his laptop. He logged into Skype and joined a call with some of his New York friends, "Sorry I'm a little late guys, lost track of the time."

Richie stayed at his bed and took Eddie's summer homework from his nightstand to look it over for a second time. He'd circled all of Eddie's small mistakes last week and was checking to see if everything was perfect now. It was.

So he picked up his guitar and started strumming slowly. He was trying to teach himself "Like Real People Do" by Hozier because Eddie really liked that song.

He hadn't been paying much attention to Eddie's conversation until he heard his name being said about half an hour into their conversation.

"Yeah, tonight's the night. Kind of nerve wracking for him," Eddie said.

Richie put down his guitar and walked over to his desk where his glasses were. As he was putting them on, Eddie shifted forward on the chair so Richie could reach one leg over and sit behind him, which he did, immediately wrapping his arms around Eddie's middle.

"Hey Sam, hey Delila," Richie said to the screen before planting his chin on Eddie's shoulder.

"Big day, huh?" Sam asked at the same time as Delila asked, "How are you feeling?"

Richie nodded, "Yup. Kinda nervous but y'know, it'll be worth it in the end anyway... Any advice?"

"Don't do what I did," Sam said, "Baking your parents a cake with a picture of Satan pooping out a frosting rainbow and saying 'Bi Heaven, Hello Hell' isn't nearly as funny to them as it is to you."

"You're my hero, Sam," Richie said.

"You're all delinquents," Delila said, causing everyone to laugh.

Richie took Eddie's wrist to check the time on his watch. "They'll be home soon. I'm going to go so I can nail down everything I want to say in my head. See you guys," Richie said.

He started getting up so Eddie quickly said, "I'm going to leave the chat now anyway, we'll talk tomorrow," they all said their goodbyes, and then Eddie hung up. He looked over his shoulder at Richie who was pacing his room and sighed softly.

"Hey Babe, I have something for you," Eddie said.

Richie paused and watched as Eddie scrambled through his bag. He pulled out a small package of string lights, an envelope and some small wooden pegs then grabbed tape from the desk before walking to Richie's bed and crawling to the space on the wall between the window and the corner of his room beside the headboard. He unraveled the string lights and started taping them in a snake pattern down the wall.

Richie crawled up next to him and opened up the envelope. Inside were pictures; group photos of the losers and photos of the losers either individually or some moments that included only a few members (like one of Richie and Mike carrying a frazzled Bill on their shoulders).

Eddie took the photos and used the wooden pegs to affix them to the string lights. He left the entire bottom row of string lights open for Richie to add more photos down the line and the middle space of the new mural was also left open.

Eddie pressed a button on the battery pack and the string lights started glowing softly. He pulled out the last photo from the envelope and pointed to the empty space in the middle of the mural. "Once you're ready, you can put this one here," he said. It was a picture of Eddie kissing Richie on the cheek while Richie was curled into himself in laughter. Eddie now had a matching one hanging over his desk where it was Richie who was kissing Eddie on the cheek.

"Anyway, thought maybe this could help you feel better. Your friends can be the last thing you see at night and the first thing you wake up to each morning," Eddie said.

Richie let his eyes scan over all of the pictures. Eddie had taken all of them over the summer. They reminded Richie of times that he'd forgotten already and other times that he would probably never forget.

Then he looked at Eddie, the boy that was never patient with anything in life unless it came to Richie. He took the last photo from Eddie, looked it over, then pegged it to the middle space.

They looked at it together, Eddie leaning his head against Richie's shoulder. Richie leaned his head right back.

"Have I ever told you how amazing you are?" Richie asked.

"Pretty much all the time," Eddie answered.

"Good. Because you are."

They heard a car coming up the short driveway and Richie let out a puff of air.

They got up and they stood facing each other in front of Richie's locked door. Eddie put both of his hands on Richie's hips and Richie mimicked Eddie's position.

"If all goes well, I'll see you at dinner," Eddie said, "And if not, it's okay if you can't talk tonight. Whatever you need to do, whether it's sneak over tonight or be alone for a few hours, I'll support it. I'll do whatever you need. Okay?"

Richie took another look at the photos on his wall then nodded at Eddie. "Thanks, Eddie... Hopefully we'll see each other soon."

Richie squeezed Eddie in for a long, hard hug. Eddie was lifted off the ground and tried to hug back as hard as he could, but it was difficult with all the air running out of his lungs. He didn't mind though.

Another quick kiss and then Richie opened his door and Eddie followed him down the stairs just in time to join the parents coming through the door.

"Hello boys!" Maggie smiled.

"Hey Mom, hi Dad."

"Hi Mrs. Tozier, hi RL Tozier," Eddie smiled.

"Eddie, how are you?" RL Tozier asked.

"I'm good. You two need help carrying groceries?" Eddie asked.

The pair of adults dropped some grocery bags on the counter. "No, this is everything sweetheart," Maggie said.

"Staying for dinner, Edster?" RL Tozier asked.

"Actually, Eddie's just heading home," Richie answered.

"Okay. See you soon, Eddie."

"Say hi to your mom for us!"

"Will do. Bye for now," Eddie said. Richie walked Eddie to the door and once he made sure his parents were busy unpacking, Richie squeezed Eddie's hand. Eddie quickly squeezed back and then Richie was shutting the door slowly as they gave each other knowing looks.

Richie headed into the kitchen, paused at the doorway, nodded to himself and then stepped forward to help unpacking.

"I thought when you requested Mexican food tonight that Eddie would be staying. Didn't you say Mexican is his favorite?" his mom asked.

"Yeah it's his favorite." Richie was stumbling over his hands until he shook himself out of it and put the remaining ingredients on the counter so he could help his parents start cooking. "I uh... I actually asked Eddie to leave so I could talk to you guys about something."

They both looked at him. They'd never heard Richie sound serious before. They were so used to him only being happy-go-lucky.

"What is it, Rich?"

"Uh. Maybe you two should sit down."

So they did, never once having their eyes leave Richie's.

Richie looked at his parents as they sat at the kitchen table. They weren't sure if they should be worried, but they were worried anyway. Their eyes gave them away.

Richie took a step closer to the table.

He glanced over both of them one last time just in case this was the final time they'd all be normal together. That was the thought that scared him the most. He was getting a bit choked up already.

"I uh... Hm. I uh. Well, Mom, Dad, I have a boyfriend. And I was hoping he could join us for dinner tonight," he said.

His parents took turns to spare each other a glance before Maggie reached her hand across the table and held Richie's.

"Son, why are you crying?" his dad asked.

Richie touched his cheek with his freehand. He hadn't even known he was crying. He wiped the tears away quickly. "I'm scared," he whispered.

Richie's parents hadn't ever seen him cry, now that he thought about it. Sure, they did when he was a toddler and stuff, but that hardly counted.

Both of his parents were too afraid to get up, like any sort of movement would shatter the stillness in the air and Richie would bolt.

"What are you scared of?" his father asked.

Richie huffed but it came out somewhat strangled. He backed away and his mother's hand dropped back down to the table. He hit the counter behind him and then he started feeling a little insane and a little woozy. He was looking down at his feet, or at the wooden table, or at the ceiling. Anywhere but the eyes of his parents.

He looked like he wanted to bolt anyway so Wentworth slowly stood from the table, but didn't come any closer. "Richie, we love you. We love you no matter what. Just please talk to us," his father said.

"You might not," Richie said through the heaves of his chest, "you might not always love me _no matter what_."

"What do you mean?"

"You want to know why I'm scared?" Richie finally looked at his father. Dead on. "I've been so scared to tell you who I am because I don't want to disappoint anyone. You. The town. A-and I'm scared it'll affect your congregation. Like people will stop coming to your services because your son is gay and - you won't realize it at first - but you'll start resenting me deep down for it because I ruined everything!"

Richie started curling into himself and hugged his arms around his chest as he finally fully comprehended the truth of his words himself and chanted _Oh my God Oh my God Oh my God_ in between pants.

His parents could see he was spiraling into himself and it brought tears to Maggie's eyes who wished she'd seen earlier how Richie must've felt.

He felt a hand placed on either one of his shoulders. "Richie look at me." Richie kept rocking back and forth. "Richie, c'mon."

Finally Richie looked at his father.

"Son, if people stop coming to my services because they aren't tolerant enough to accept and love those around them, then it is I who has failed them. You understand, Richie?" he said.

For the first time in a long time Richie felt like he was talking to his dad instead of a religious leader.

Suddenly, Richie lurched forward and slammed himself into his father's chest. They were around the same height, but Wentworth was much broader and took the impact like a champ, immediately wrapping his arms around his son.

Footsteps approached and Maggie joined in, her hand rubbing up and down her son's back. She pressed a kiss into his forehead and they all stayed like that for a short while.

This certainly went a lot differently than Richie had expected. He was eternally grateful for it. Especially since he knew a lot of parents weren't as supportive.

He pulled away and scrubbed at his face.

"Honey, why don't you use the sink to do that instead of your hands?" his mom suggested.

"Because I want to get all the saltiness from my tears to flavor the fajitas we're making."

His parents choked on their unexpected laughter and then Richie turned on the faucet, threw some water on his face, and dried off with a hand towel.

"Why don't you invite him while we get cooking, it won't take long anyway," she said.

"Okay. Thanks you two. A lot."

"Of course kiddo," his father said. Then suddenly, "Is it Eddie?"

It was Richie's turn to choke. "Fuck. That obvious, huh?"

"Language young man!"

"Sorry. I mean, I just poured out my heart to you so you could cut me some slack. But sorry. I meant 'Fudge.' ...I'm going to go get Eddie now."

So he did.

He rang the doorbell and it was answered in record time by an extremely anxious Eddie who left the door open and stood in the doorway. Eddie didn't say anything, he just looked up at Richie with big eyes and jittering like a Chihuahua.

Richie leaned one arm against the doorframe, used his other hand to flip his flowing hair out of his eyes, and looked down at Eddie.

"Hey Hot Stuff, got any dinner plans for tonight?"

Eddie was too excited to play along.

He yelled out an odd sound and jumped forward into Richie, arms around his neck.

Richie caught Eddie and spun him around effortlessly while planting a big one on him.

Eddie didn't care that he left his door open. The one perk of having a mom like his was that if she walked by the doorway and saw Eddie kissing a boy, well, Eddie would be perfect to her no matter what. And if that's exactly what happened, then neither boy noticed because she would have just kept walking along to the kitchen. She and Eddie could talk later. And for the record, her little Eddie was still perfect.

Eddie had dinner with the Tozier's numerous times by now. (Once his mother had even joined because RL Tozier had been trying to convince her to come to a service but she didn't fancy leaving her house much.) But this was his first time being _the boyfriend_ at dinner. He thought he should be nervous, but as soon as they walked through the door Mrs. Tozier hugged him and RL Tozier put a firm hand on his shoulder as they greeted him.

It went so smoothly. Richie could hardly hide how ecstatic he was through mouthfuls of fajita.

And he definitely couldn't hide it when he slept over Eddie's that night.

The following day, after chicken fighting in the water with Mike and Bill (and losing to them), Eddie and Richie were sitting in the shade of a tree at the shore of the quarry. Eddie was sitting behind Richie so he could finish up braiding his hair. In the meantime, Richie was reading his book aloud for Eddie to enjoy.

Once the braiding was complete, Eddie got up and sat in front of Richie and started applying sunscreen to his shoulders and face. Richie shut his book and gave Eddie an unamused stare. "I was just getting to the good part you know," he said.

"You're sunburnt all over. You should've applied more in the first place," Eddie tutted.

There was a stark difference between how tan Eddie's skin was by summer's end and how freckled Richie's was in contrast with his white (newly pink) skin.

The other losers were starting to emerge from the water to join them on the shore. Stan watched as Eddie swiped a line of sunscreen down Richie's nose so he looked like a touristy dad, then one swipe on either cheek so he looked like a touristy football player dad. And he noticed how close their faces had been while Eddie did so and the way they were looking at each other with such small, endearing smiles. Stan rolled his eyes to himself and crossed his arms as he sat down next to Ben, but he was grinning nonetheless.

Eddie was wearing one of Richie's Hawaiian shirts because he thought it was a shame they didn't get to see summer. Richie thought they looked better on Eddie anyway.

Eddie and Richie shared a certain look. It was crazy that they could do that so early on, just be able to read each other without having to say a word. That look meant that Richie would break the word to the others soon now. He was just waiting for the right moment.

Eddie got up to grab some food from the bag in the middle of their large blanket. All the other losers surrounded this pile except for Richie who stayed back by his tree and just watched all of his friends.

They were all talking and snacking and bobbing their heads to the music they were playing. They just all looked so right together. So complete. Especially with Eddie in the mix. He was one of them now. He had been for a while.

The music switched from the small wireless speaker Bev was holding and abruptly stopped her dancing.

"Who changed the playlist?" she asked.

"I did," Eddie said.

"Change it back," she pouted.

"What? Why? Pop is just as good and we've been listening to your rock music all day," he pointed out.

"Your music sucks, Eddie!" she whined.

"Hey!" Richie interjected, "Don't talk to my boyfriend like that."

"But he- Wait. _Boyfriend_?!" Bev shouted.

Bev immediately forgot about her stance on the playlist and pounced on Eddie to give him a huge bear hug. All of the boys got up from where they were sitting with huge grins.

"You're not fucking with us, right?" Bill asked, "This is for real?"

Richie couldn't resist the huge grin forming on his lips and nodded. Some got in their hugs and congratulations to Eddie once Bev got off of him while others approached Richie to do the same. Then they all switched off.

"When did this happen?" Mike asked as he gave Richie a noogie.

Richie shoved him off but laughed the entire time. His face was hurting with happiness but he couldn't stop smiling. "Like almost three months ago," he said.

Finally, after hugging Eddie, Stan made his way over to Richie. He smiled at him. "Are you still scared?" he asked when the others headed to Eddie and it was just the two of them.

Richie thought for a moment and then suddenly remembered the conversation he and Stan had just months ago in the very woods they were standing next to. The same day he and Eddie figured it all out.

Richie looked behind Stan to spare a glance at Eddie who was smiling and giggling like crazy as he gushed to the others. "You know, sometimes I think I should be. Like when we walk into school next week and everyone will know and I just don't know what that will bring..." Then he looked back at Stan. "But for now, I have Eddie. And he's made me happier than I've ever been because I guess I never really knew who I was before him. Not fully. But now I'm learning to accept every part of myself. And just be me. And if other people don't like who I am, well I guess that'll just have to be okay with me." He smiled. It was soft, but real. It was happy. "Because I have you guys. I have everything I'll ever need. Right here."

Stan put a hand on Richie's shoulder. "I'm really proud of you Rich. You've grown a lot. It really shows."

They hugged briefly, but tightly.

Stan stepped back so they could both join the others and hear all about everything, but before they did-

"Oh and Stan," Richie said, "That whole _growing a lot_ thing. I don't think that would've happened if it weren't for you."

They gave one another a small nod as if both of them were saying a quiet "thank you" to each other in unison. Then they joined the others. Everyone sat in a circle and Richie slung an arm around Eddie, just like he always did.

"Can't believe the first day of school is tomorrow," Richie mumbled.

"Don't remind me. It all went by too quickly," Eddie murmured against his chest.

They were nestled in the hammock on Richie's porch facing the sidewalk. It was hot out, but Richie had wanted to cuddle so he brought a fan out and sat it on the windowsill so it could cool them down (a trick he had picked up from observing his mother in the past).

Eddie's face was cuddled into Richie's chest. Richie was reading _The Trials of Apollo_ while Eddie lulled in and out of sleep. (He loved how sleepy and cozy Eddie got on particularly hot days.) Everytime something cute happened between Nico and Will in the book Richie would absentmindedly give the top of Eddie's head a small kiss.

As nice as it all felt, the cool air flowing from the fan, Eddie curled up into him, and the slight sway of being suspended in the air by a hammock, Richie was slightly irritated. So irritated that he hated thinking it, but he did have a regret; he didn't so much regret being out here with Eddie, but only that they were laying down facing the sidewalk instead of the woods. Richie wanted to suggest they turn around, but Eddie was dozing so peacefully that Richie would've felt worse disrupting him.

The problem was that, although few and far between, there were people walking on the sidewalk. The sidewalk was only about ten feet away from where the boys were currently. They got a lot of glances, but more so stares. Richie ignored them all. He pretended to be so invested in his book that he didn't notice. But the truth was that whenever he heard footsteps approaching, he caught looks from town goers in his peripherals.

Almost all of these people had been older women. Some had their husbands with them. A few were high schoolers. Richie didn't care about everyone knowing now - it was why he made the move to get Eddie on the hammock with him, like a demonstration almost. Maybe that was wrong of him, but everyone would know by tomorrow anyway when all of their peers get home from school and tell their parents that Richie Tozier is gay. And more importantly, this was a small step for Richie before stepping into school. Maybe that was wrong too, but Eddie realized Richie felt this way and he didn't mind, he understood.

Most of all though, Richie just wanted to feel normal. But it was kind of difficult when every passerby would give him a sidestare. He could already imagine old lady Karen from down the street leaving a letter of her concern in their mailbox later that night addressed to RL Tozier to see if he was aware that his son was flirting with sin.

If they were facing the woods, it would still happen but at least Richie wouldn't be so self conscious of it in the moment.

"Do you boys-" Richie snapped his eyes wide to his mom whose head was peeking out the window. She had a hand slammed over her mouth but the damage had already been done. Eddie jolted awake. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up," she said.

Eddie hummed through a smile at her, "That's okay. I sleep too much anyway," he reassured as he picked up his head a bit.

"I was just going to ask if either of you want cookies. I made some," she said.

"Mom, it's like two o'clock, why did you bake cookies?" Richie asked, tone amused.

"It's my day off and I wanted something sweet, leave me alone."

"We're good on the cookies Mrs. Tozier. Thank you."

She nodded. "Okay, well if you change your mind they're on the stove." Then she popped her head back inside the window and disappeared.

Richie started reading his book out loud again and Eddie closed his eyes and nestled his head back into Richie.

Richie's reading stopped abruptly when they heard a sound at the window. Eddie peeked an eye open and watched as Mrs. Tozier placed a plate of cookies down on the sill. He could see she was trying to do it silently, but the porcelain plate was loud against the wood. She mouthed "Sorry" and then backed away slowly until she was gone.

"Your mom is so nice," Eddie said.

Richie reached over and grabbed two of the cookies before passing one to Eddie. "Your mom's nice too," Richie said, "Last night she was whispering sweet nothings into my ear as she laid me down-"

Eddie slapped his chest. "Shut up you gay piece of shit."

Richie quickly shoved a cookie into his mouth and with his freely new hand he grabbed the one that had slapped him. Just then-

"Hey Richie!"

Richie shut the book that was obscuring his view of the sidewalk. There stood Jessica and Rebecca.

Jessica raised her brows momentarily when the disappearance of the book revealed Eddie, but she did a good job of not reacting. Richie appreciated that.

"Oh. Hi Eddie."

She was smiling so beautifully and so genuinely. Eddie waved, "Hi Jess!"

"Hey Jessica," Richie said. His eyes lowered to Rebecca. He wondered what she must've been thinking. She was shyly grabbing onto her sister's leg only half hiding herself. "Hello there, Becca. How's my favorite girl?"

She giggled and squished her face into her sister's side. "I'm good."

"That's good to hear," he said.

"We were just getting her some last minute school supplies. First day of third grade tomorrow," Jessica said.

"Wow, that's so exciting! You're going to have so much fun!"

Rebecca shook her head.

"You don't think so?" Eddie asked, "Why not?"

"People are mean," she said.

Both of the boys in the hammock sat up a little bit more at that. Jessica put her hand on her sister's shoulder. "Yeah, some of the boys pick on her. We've talked to the school but they don't really do anything."

Richie rolled his eyes. "They never do anything. Well pretty soon you'll be taller than all of the boys and then you can-"

"Richie. No," Eddie said.

"Well if they ever make you feel sad just remember that this boy loves you very much," Richie said and pointed at himself.

Eddie's heart warmed at that. He pointed to himself and said, "This one does too!"

That made her smile.

"Thanks guys," Jessica said. "We have to get home now, but I'll see you two tomorrow!" She smiled and waved goodbye before corralling Rebecca who was awestruck by Richie. Or maybe Richie and Eddie together.

The boys smiled and waved back, "Good luck on your first day, Becca. See you tomorrow Jessica."

"Bye Rebecca, see ya, Jess!"

And then they were gone.

The pair settled back down into the hammock facing each other. Eddie searched Richie's eyes. "You're really good with people," he whispered.

Richie looked past Eddie's head but Rebecca was already out of sight. "She's right y'know. People are mean," he whispered back.

Just then some footsteps from the sidewalk were heard walking on by. Eddie didn't even glance over to check who it was. He could tell Richie was about to so he leaned forward and kissed the tip of his nose. It made Richie smile softly.

"Sure, some people are," Eddie said, "but then there's people like you who look out for the Rebecca's of the world."

Richie chuckled. "The one of Derry anyway." He let his eyes fall from Eddie to the strings of the hammock supporting them. His fingers played with the threading anxiously before he finally asked, "Where do you want to go to school? ...After we graduate."

Eddie also started to twiddle some strings. "I've thought about going back to New York. They have good schools and I liked it there... Guess a lot of my friends will be going out of state by then anyway though. Probably wouldn't like it much without them." Eddie smiled at the thought of his friends and the memories of all their future plans together. But plans change. Eddie thought that was probably a good thing. "What about you?" he asked.

Richie's eyes remained planted on the surface of the hammock just below Eddie's head. "I. Well, it's hard because I don't know what I want to be yet, but I know I like math and I'm good at it. But I also like entertainment you know like books and movies and even comedy specials," he chuckled humorlessly at himself for a moment. "But uh. Well anyway, California has a lot of options for those things. I've already started working on an application to the University of Southern California."

"Okay."

Something about the way Eddie said it made Richie's eyes shoot back up at him. "Okay?"

"Yeah. I'll apply to UCLA. They have a really good business department and that's what I want to go into anyway. And I think my dad would be happy if I ended up in California." Eddie shifted his weight so his head was propped up by his hand. Richie mimicked the position. "And I mean, being close to you is another plus," he said before Richie surged forward to kiss him.

When Eddie pulled back, they smiled so fondly at each other that Eddie's heart swarmed with the warm tides of the Western Coast.

Richie spared a glance upwards. Up towards the awning above his head and then to the one attached to Eddie's house. Up towards the space where it all began. Him and Eddie. His future.

Most importantly, he was looking ahead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so our journey together ends.  
> Thank you to anyone who has read, left a comment, and/or a kudos. You are all great!  
> 


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